About gods and engineers
by Ejostra
Summary: Tony Stark got stuck with the god of mischief in the past. Dealing with his still living father and mother might be hard, but even harder is the much needed cooperation. Deals are very frequent, dark secrets are coming to the surface and long buried pains hurt once more. But at the end of the journey a god and an engineer might never be who they were before.
1. Chapter 1

Howard Stark was stretching his stiffed hands uncomfortably above the paperwork he was currently buried in, sighing. From the different room in the house he could hear the quiet whispering and some strange noises every now and then interrupted by gentle laughing. For a while it kept stealing the peace away from his office, tearing the thoughts in his skull before they could be written down and settled. Despite his best trying to ignore the buzz, he could already make up the words along with the sweat voice uttering them.

For a one treacherous second he found himself slowly drifting away from his body, leaving the writing being mechanical. The picture of his wife lying on the bed with wide eyes and sweat face appeared in front of him and it was too warm for Howard to just let go so easily.

She was such a good storyteller.

It was easy to imagine their small kid by her side, listening and clinging on every word coming from those smiling lips.  
God, his fingers felt numb…

He turned his head away from the partly opened door in a poor attempt to get his concentration back where it supposed to be. He hated the noise while he was working –yes, he remembered now. The expensive ballpoint pen quickly recovered the lost position on the paper, it was right back on the good track, when the sudden giggling cut its approach again and Howard stood up. Without really paying attention to what he was doing, in the next moment he was in front of the massive oak door, letting the orange light illuminate his face before he could ran into the corridor. Then he stopped abruptly. His expression angry and disoriented at once.

The idea of that stupid and unnecessary action left him as fast as it came. His hand slowly encircled the doorknob pulling the door closed. The one steady breath got him back to his senses and to his desk.  
However he couldn´t find a pleasure in the new arranged isolation anymore. Otherwise soothing familiarity of the situation and silence made him think even more about what was waiting behind that door and what he managed to cut away so eagerly.  
"To hell with this," he muttered the quiet curse, but dug himself into papers anyway. Sooner he would have it off the table, quicker he could fall into some of his new concepts in the workshop. Or when the time would be merciful even for something else.

Howard concentrated on his breathing and sound of the pen marking the white sheets. It could work for a really good calming effect, but then… BOOM!  
He jumped up on his feet, looking around with heart beating painfully against his ribcage. He was still alone in the room, but the house was shaking. He had to steady himself against the table not to lose his stability until a wave passed.

Was it an earthquake? Terrorists?

"Sir, Mr. Stark!"  
"Jarvis, thank God you´re here."  
Howard visibly relaxed at the sight of his butler hurrying to his side ready for orders.  
"Have you seen the lightening, sir? Should I call someone?" He seemed to be worried, but didn´t lose his cool, not for a second.  
"The lightening? No, Jarvis. What was it?"  
Howard followed the other man to the window and let him move the curtain.  
"I don´t know what it is, sir. But it came from the garden."  
He narrowed his eyes trying to spot anything odd on the grass or behind the trees.  
"Sir, can you see it?"  
He gazed in the pitch black again. This time his eyes adjusted a little more than before.  
"What the hell, Jarvis?"  
The butler stood by his side motionless.  
"Are those… people?"  
"Probably, sir." Both men stayed still for a moment, thinking. "What are we going to do?"  
The phone was already in Howard´s hand as the question was set. He kept gazing to the dark with excitement rising inside his chest. The situation was dangerous. And he indeed felt endangered. He as the person, his family, house, every invention in his basement. But at the same time he knew that something amazing has just happened right at his porch. He couldn´t stop the wildest of possibilities hunting for his attention with this knowledge.

"What is it Stark?" The grumpy voice greeted him from the other side of the line. Background noises like the person was just getting up from the bed. Not happy.  
"I need someone in my house ASAP."  
"What is it? You´ve blown up something again?"  
Howard ignored the biting comment.  
"No, Frank. There are aliens in my garden."

At the end of the explanation he was sure that the other man understood how private this had to stay and how fast he had to get in.  
"Just stay in the house, you fool."  
"Sure. Hurry up."  
He threw the phone on the table, counting with Jarvis to follow him, when he ran out and into the house.  
Lab. He needed to get to his lab… to activate the protocol…  
"Dad?"

He froze.  
"Dad…"  
Howard turned around finding his son watching him back with frightened eyes, hand in hand with frowning woman.  
"Jarvis."  
"Yes, sir?"  
"Go, get them to safety," he looked away, "I have a work to do."

OOO

"Wake up you useless… Wak´… Stark…to kill you, if you… Hey!"  
Tony blinked several times and opened his eyes to face the darkness of his helmet and also terrible disoriented feeling making his whole world spinning and shaking. He was lying on his back – so much he knew from the point, where his suit was heavily pinning him down with all its dead force. He couldn´t move a single muscle and couldn´t remember a damn reason why.  
Where the hell was he?  
"JARVIS?"  
"Yes, sir?" Nothing lit up. The surrounding blackness was still occupied only by threats of the unknown voice.  
"What happened? Are we dead? And if we are… are we in heaven?"  
"You´re not in heaven, sir…"  
"Ohh, crap. We should have donated more to charities, I knew that…"  
"And as far as I know," the Al didn´t accept to be interrupted, "you´re not dead either."  
Tony smiled for himself.  
"Awesome. Now the first question, Jarvis."  
Without any screen with running data it felt more like talking to imaginary buddy, who surprisingly is able to reply back.

"How far do you remember, sir?"  
Tony recalled the last moment playing in his mind. His head started to hurt.  
"We were fighting. Me and Avengers… Loki showed up. There was Steve screaming something and… Loki. He was trying to escape."  
"Yes, Captain Rogers´s plan was to retreat, but Iron Man was too close to the enemy. You decided to stop Loki, however he was already in the middle of a spell. I believe it was the spell for teleportation."

That would pretty much explain why was the god kicking his right side at the moment.  
"I hate magic."  
"I know, sir."  
"JARVIS, mics on." He was prepared to warn Rock of Ages to piss off till he´s still unable to move and kick his ass. Apologize wasn´t exactly what he expected.  
"It´s not possible, Mr. Stark. I had to switch all the functions down, because of your arc reactor being damaged in some way probably by the spell. I ran a diagnostics while you were unconscious. Everything else seems to be fine."  
Ok, he originally thought it was an elephant sitting on his chest.  
"How long can the suit last without me experiencing a heart attack?" he asked, calculating.  
"Counting only the movement and possibility to fire a weapon as a protection, it´s 20 minutes at most. But no speaking, sir."  
"No speaking?" This will be definitely the hardest part.  
"Ok." Tony tried to refill his lungs with some oxygen. "Start the movement mode. First of all kick that bastard to the crotch."  
"With pleasure."

The small screen in the middle of the mask woke to life, configurated to show only what was in front of Tony, no controls, statistics, no anything… What medieval ages here…  
"Are you done, Stark?"  
Inbuilt camera focused at the Loki´s face and his hand blocking the hit which was meant for his manhood… or godhood… whatever. Tony sat up, pushing away the sick feeling for later.  
"Have you eaten your tongue, human? I need answers. Where are we?"  
"How the hell should I know that? It was your damn mojo playing with our molecules." He couldn´t hear him. Tony tapped on his mask´s mouth, hoping Reindeer will understand the simple gesture.

Few seconds have passed with Loki still wearing that frustrated expression.  
"I see," he uttered acidly, "that suit of yours is good for nothing."  
"God, give me strength. Jarvis," he called out, "remind me why we don´t kill this guy right now?"  
"Because it would cost us too much energy."  
"Of course."  
Tony moved both his hands and got happy when he succeeded. But his smile froze almost immediately as he noticed another presence in the area - specifically a lot of men with a lot of weapons forming a circle around the two intruders, pointing at them with their guns from the safe distance.  
"Who are those people?"  
"I don´t have the access to the database, sir."  
"How long are they here?"  
"About an hour."  
Tony choked. "What? And you didn´t think it was important enough to tell me?"  
"I infiltrated their connection. There should be no serious danger for you, sir. They have an order not to shoot unless it´s necessary."  
"You calmed me down."  
"Thank you."

Tony rolled his eyes, but didn´t tried to explain anything. He turned on the god of mischief instead, demanding his attention.  
"Any brilliant idea on your mind, Stark?"  
Only the fact he was asking such a question – him, the magician - meant he felt as powerful as Tony in the half dead suit. On the surface he looked weary, a little battered, but nothing indicated he was injured. Maybe he just needed to charge batteries. One way or another it was no time for fighting against each other at the moment, even more while Tony had no idea what is wrong with his metal heart. Who knows what would those killers do, if the two of them suddenly started to wrestle.

Loki didn´t move at all while Tony was thinking. He was standing right behind his back, taking him for a shield.  
"So?"  
Tony lifted his hand and pointed at men. With the other one opening and closing he signaled talking. There was nothing simpler he could use for a sign.  
"And who should talk to them? Me?"  
Tony´s hands flew into the air. "Who else, genius?"  
"Very well."

Loki disappeared from camera´s view. Tony had to stand up and turned to find him again – standing in front of the aimed guns, straight and tall, like they were nothing to be worried about. He could swear that there was some kind of simple illusion making him look more noble and elegant. From all the forms he could probably take upon himself he chose the one looking like a prince, not anything devil or frightening. Tony didn´t really mind. After all he was the best manipulator with or without his magic.  
"I greet you, inhabitants of this planet…"  
"Jesus Christ…"  
"I accept your surrender and will keep you as my slaves to serve my plans of taking the rule over the Earth only if you do so now willingly and without any resistance."  
Tony couldn´t believe it. "He´ll never stop trying, will he?"  
"Probably not, sir."

Tony walked to Loki´s side right at the "kneel now before your god" moment and kicked him to his leg as strong as the damaged suit allowed him. But not as much as he would like to.  
"You want to die, Stark?" Loki looked at him with dark shadow over his face. "Do it again and I´ll tell them you are a robot who wants to destroy their world. Terminator was the name, if I recall correctly."  
That would deserve a praise whistle only if there would be any sound coming from Tony.  
"You spent obviously too much time on Midgard."

"Sir, I don´t want to interrupt, but the time is running. You should get somewhere safe very soon."  
"Sure." He almost forgot. The adrenalin was a treacherous friend. He stepped back, receiving a curious look from a god.  
"Can I continue?"  
He nodded. Do it your way and I will pray they won´t start shooting only to shut you up.  
"Well, thank you. So where did I stop? Yes! Now you can kneel before your god…"


	2. Chapter 2

„How much time do we have?"  
„12 minutes and 35 seconds, sir, till the complete shutdown."  
"Party time, Jarvis. We should get out of pajama."

Tony looked around and scanned the small empty room he was led in a moment ago. There was nothing except the looked door on his right and one camera installed in the corner above the place, where Loki sat with his legs stretched on the ground and green cloak freely hanging of his shoulders.  
"I´m so glad he lost those damn horns somewhere on the road."  
"Me too, sir."  
Tony sighed. "We have to do it manually, J," he stated adding the order to release the safe locks. Despite the command they stayed on their places with JARVIS apologizing to him for this error. It almost looked like he perfectly knew how fucked up Tony was without the option to get out of the suit and lick whatever wounds the armor gave him at the places where it curved inside although he didn´t feel like bleeding or broken-boned at the moment. The main problem however lay in his reactor.

His gaze wandered towards the distant camera once more recognizing it to be at the perfect angle to monitor whatever movement was made inside of the room, probably sound as well. He was pretty much aware of the danger, if the suit gets off. Tony didn´t try to fool himself. He would immediately become vulnerable against anyone with more sleep or alcohol or both than him – no guns were really needed here with the arc reactor might taking a vacation by any time now.

No matter how battered the suit was, it always looked stronger and more dangerous than sweaty, out-of-breath Tony Stark inside. But did he really have a choice at this point? He needed to know what is wrong with his metal heart before it´ll stop his human one.  
"I´m going to rip it out somehow," he played with the idea in his head for a few seconds, but not more. Sometimes his hands worked quicker than his brain and sometimes it was actually a good thing.  
"Sir?"  
He was sure as hell, it looked pretty bad, when he started to jump on his one leg or wildly spinning from side to side in some too pathetic try to move the plates or dislocate them. But nothing better came up to his mind, until he suddenly heard the god behind him chuckle. His words were ice cold and cheery at the same time.

"However amusing this is, Stark, I have to ask…" Tony looked at him sideway. "What exactly are you doing?"  
This time he screamed inside of his helmet for real.  
"What does it look like? Dancing, idiot… JARVIS, time!"  
The AI´s voice sounded in distress, when he announced: "6 minutes 10 seconds."  
Surprisingly it took a lot of time for Tony to admit there was no chance of him getting out by himself. Energy in his hands was already at the minimum, not talking about his intention to design those safe locks for another people to switch – maybe his teammates with actual sense in their fingers.

He was cursing inwardly as he turned to Loki laughing at the crazy idea he got. Tony found him still gazing with light cruel smirk across his face after he walked towards him – 3 meters distance maintained between the two enemies, when Tony stopped and clapped on a top of the metal enclosing his form.  
"Mind to help me, Reindeer?"  
"What do you want from me?" was the reply from the bored god.  
He tried to keep in mind that they had some unspoken agreement of not killing each other for now until they know what they stood against or where the fuck were they in the first place.  
"Help. Me."  
Tony would probably never say it out loud, so it was maybe better the mics didn´t work and therefore he didn´t die because of his ego collapsing.

Loki had to know by now what all the gestures meant, but he didn´t move a finger to acknowledge the man standing in front of him – trapped.  
"I don´t know what you want from me and I´m not really interested in finding out." Fucking liar.  
"Sir, we have only 3 minutes left."  
He knew he couldn´t make him or that he couldn´t do it by himself, but he still returned to his original plan simply because he wasn´t going to give up so easily. He survived far worse and he wasn´t about to die in one room with Asshole Prince of Asgard laughing above his corpse.  
"30 seconds."  
Jesus, he felt claustrophobic. A striking pain found a way to his chest and made him clench his hand around the spot where the reactor was. The armor was growing heavier by every second and in a next moment tony was gasping for air with horrified scenes of Afganistan in front of his eyes unable to think or process what was JARVIS saying.

Sliding down with his back against the wall, there was a hand to catch him. The strong grip, which leaded him safely to the floor, where he sat trying to focus something out from the dizzy picture what was apparently his sight.  
"…to understand me, human," he heard Loki speaking somewhere close to his face, "I´m no hero, I don´t do things for free. So here is what I offer. I´ll help you out of your damned invention and then I will ask something in return. Do we have a deal?"  
Tony was more clever than to do the trading with God of Mischief, but not now. Now he wanted to get his hands on burnt wires he felt inside his chest and fix them.

He wasn´t able to nod, so he tried to stick a thumb up on his right hand. At the last moment he changed the gesture for his middle finger. It was impossible for Loki to know the difference.  
"I understand this as your agreement."  
Then the mask was ripped away from Tony´s face too easily for his engineering taste. He could finally draw a breath to his lungs and blink away a fog from his eyes to see Loki reaching for his chest plate next.  
"No," he complained, "wait."  
He counted him a good mark, when Loki didn´t make any comment while Tony was trying to calm down and steady his crazy heart beating.  
"I need some… tools," he explained breathing too heavily for him to pretend everything was fine.  
"Tools? For what?"  
"To get the chest plate away."  
"I can rip it out, just like I did with the mask." Loki didn´t sound annoyed, but confused of what to think about strange demands.  
"If you rip everything out, it will be a lot of harder to get it back together."

He nodded towards the camera behind Loki´s shoulder. He understood. They were not in the position to walk around the place totally unprotected. If there was any chance for Tony to repair his reactor and charge the suit, they had a hella better chance to defend each other.  
"Maybe I want you all vulnerable, Stark," he hissed with a vicious smile.  
"Probably not with those 50 shades of grey under your eyes." He gave him back the smile, despite of hurting his head while doing so. "You are not in the shape to do it alone, Rambo."

He was angry, yes… But he didn´t bite Tony´s head off at least.  
"You want me to talk to them again?"  
"No, of course I don´t. But we don´t have much choice here."

OOO

There were two other men in the room with Howard Stark. One of them was his old friend and fortunately also a head of the security service in the town, Frank as he called him. It wasn´t his real name, but it suited him. The other man was Frank´s right hand – a big man with a big gun and a frown which looked like deep scar on his face. He stood silently in the corner of the room, not interfering unless he was asked to.

The three of them were speaking a lot during the last minutes, but right at the moment everyone was quiet and stiff watching the small TV with two figures in the picture. Howard only wished to have a better camera inside, because what was happening right in his house was a technical miracle first hand experienced.

"He wants to speak with us," Frank confirmed only what was obvious.  
Few minutes ago after boys escorted the two strangers into the safe room, Howard became a witness of the transformation of something he considered being a full armored hi-tech robot to a half-dead looking man.  
He remembered very good as Frank cursed and split a coffee over his pants, after they all saw it on the screen.  
"What is this?" he´d asked then waiting for Howard to zoom and utter that one impossible word "suit" out of his mouth. He was amazed. Astonished. From the very first second he´d seen those two men lying on his backyard, all his attention was attracted towards the battered but still shiny metal glowing with blue light from what could be the source of energy. He thought it was some kind of artificial intelligence.

Instead it was a human being the whole time, walking around the room, trying to get that suit of him.  
"He has to be injured."  
"No, Howard, put that first aid-kid down, you´re not going there unless I say so, you get me?"  
And right now they were waiting. Waiting for the other man to speak again louder, because unless he was directly talking to camera, it was hard to figure out what was he trying to explain.

"Who are you?" At the screen this man with black hair and sharp eyes stole the question out of Howard´s head.  
"This is what we would like to ask you," Frank replied calmly not touched by the grudge arriving via speakers.  
The man seemed to consider his options.  
"My name is Loki Laufeyson, prince of Asgard and this is Iron Man." He pointed at the one behind him.

Frank pulled further away from a microphone. "Prince? Are you kidding me? Prince my ass."  
"Look at his clothes," Howard pointed out recalling the ridiculous episode in his garden, "do they seem like ordinary people to you, Frank? They walked out of 3 seconds lasting thunder." It didn´t sound so crazy considering what they had already seen.

The prince – Loki continued, when he understood there will be no introduction in return.  
"I suppose you don´t possess the knowledge of who I am and what does it mean to hold me as a hostage. But," he made a dramatic pause to do a trick, "I shall pardon you, if you serve me some things my companion here needs."  
Someone made a noise similar to quick laugh, but it was immediately replaced with coughing.  
Howard didn´t think twice as he pushed Frank away and got on his spot, silencing his cursing with the move of his hand.  
"What does he need?"  
The list was repeated twice, but that didn´t help Howard to understand it better. He´s never heard about tools like that being constructed, some of them maybe as concepts at the moment. This wasn´t a right time to feel ashamed, when he asked for the descriptions or rather simplificated versions.

"Jesus Christ, get me a set of screwdrivers, knife, lighter and saw!" the man in the suit screamed finally irritated and as it seemed in serious pain. "And a duct tape! Can´t forget a duct tape…"

Howard was flying through his workshop, grabbing everything what he thought could help, suddenly stopped by a firm grip on his arm.  
"What do you think you´re doing?" Frank was looking at him with sincere but stubborn eyes.  
"I need to get to him. See what is wrong and try to fix it."  
"Man, are you crazy?"  
Howard smiled.  
"I´m a scientist. Of course, I´m crazy. Look at him, Frank." They both turned to small TV. "He is young… in trouble, a man not a machine. We put them in there. I don´t want anyone dying because of me."  
Frank just shook his head. "You saw the technology, you told me it´s not possible to construct something like this and that prince or whatever… I don´t want to believe this, but Haward, for god´s sake… They could be aliens."  
His smile even widened. "Exactly."  
"You´re really crazy." Frank looked resigned. "I´m going there with you, no discussion. And you let me run their names through the system first."  
"There´s no time…"  
"Howard," it really didn´t sound like a plea, "ask him the name, or I swear on my dog you´re not going anywhere."

"Iron Man was the name," Loki reacted to his question with even sharper tone than before.  
"The real name." This time it was Frank talking.  
They were both watching as Loki looked at the other man briefly.  
"Stark," he said. Howard forgot how to breathe. "Anthony Stark."

 **Ok, the first two chapters are successfully behind us. Please let me know if there is an interest into this story and if there is, please, also subscribe. :) I will try to upload every week. This is still a work in progress. I would love to hear your remarks and perception as I like to get inspired by my readers. :P It´s the best form of inspiration after all! Cheers. Your Ejostra.**

 **PS: I always answer your comments, despite that I´m sometimes slow. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Tony suck up the air through his teeth with a quiet groan escaping his dry lips. Right now his chest hurt by any bearable limit. The worst thing was that there was still a lot of damn metal material between him and clearly unresponsive reactor inside his body.  
"Is it supposed to do this?"

Tony opened his eyes to glance at Loki standing over him too close for his own liking and at the same time pointing at the middle of the deformed chest plate. He didn´t have to guess twice to know what the god is seeing there. Still the tone of the question surprised him.  
"The light is weak, because your trick did something to the reactor."  
"I don´t remember telling you to grab onto me. You could have been killed in the process." It almost sounded like Tony should be glad that he walked of this only with damaged device holding his heart together.  
"It still can be," he admitted dryly recognizing Loki´s look as an understanding of the reactor´s importance for his life even despite that he probably didn´t know why.  
"In any other circumstances I would love to hear that, Stark. But right now I would prefer you to stay alive for some time."

He seemed to be fascinated by the dim blue light so much that in other situation Tony would be worried if he wasn´t using some of his little stunts to scan what was inside of him. He was interested to the point, that he didn´t notice, when the door was opened behind his back or he simply ignored it.

It was difficult to focus at two incoming people at first. The one of them had a deep frown across his face and hand on a gun. The second one was approaching a little bit faster with work suitcase hanging of his shoulder in a way it had probably few good extra kilograms weight.  
Tony lifted his head a little to look up at this man´s face because obviously he was an engineer or technician here and so also a man Tony needed.

There was a one single moment, when their eyes met and one brain impulse for both of them to recognize that those eyes are the same, just as their hair or strong jaw with sharp handsome features.  
"Dad?" he breathed the word out like a mix of curse and doubt, but too quietly for the reaction it caused. The man nearly jumped away like he was hit by a truck, not by the single name confirming what was impossible.  
"Tony?" his own voice sounded even more terrified and he also looked more pale than was healthy for a shock. "How is this possible?"

Tony had literally no idea. But what he knew for certain was that he was going to pass out in next ten minutes and that was the information he had to work with.  
"You are seven years old," Howard was still captured in his own thoughts and despite he needed to wake up, Tony couldn´t resist but smile weakly, when he remembered Pepper sometimes thinking the same.  
It was exactly this moment – when he said something about her aloud for all three of them to hear – that he knew he is slowly drifting away. Surprisingly Loki was the one who cut their little family speech and pointed at what was important.

"I´m not going to pretend I understand what is happening here or how is it even…" Tony groaned and Howard stopped in the middle of the sentence looking down at him with worried eyes – something what maybe Tony just imagined. "I got everything you need. Tell me what to do."  
The other guy by Howard side stepped in before Tony could respond in any way.  
"Just for the record, we are still going to run some tests to confirm your story. Until then my men have both of you in their sight. Don´t do anything stupid because I´m not going to hesitate, are we clear?"  
Loki´s smirk was pure contempt and rage.  
"Oh, you pathetic stupid creature, how can you possibly think that your threats…"  
Tony had to shut him up for their common good. "Remember what you wanted to say and come here, Hornhead. I may use your hand here."  
The next look god gave him explained how Loki was not the type for being ordered around. Still both men approached him from different sides waiting for instructions.

"Howard, use the screwdriver to get this and this out then twist it clockwise, Reindeer you will pull, when I tell you so, ok?"  
He realized immediately what went wrong in the first place, but Howard was quick enough to hide any emotion which might appear on his face.  
"I´m ready."  
"Go on, Stark." Loki stole one last moment to watch him in the eye. "And don´t forget our deal."

They started to work on removal of the chest plate, which went slowly but good so far. Tony had been sure that he would never breathe again like a normal human being, but without that Eifel tower´s weight it was at least an idea to think about.  
"Just be careful, it´s bent inside around my right side, I think it´s going to bleed, when the plate will be gone completely."  
He had to admit the two of them were amazing together. Without Loki being tech educated he didn´t expect him to move around with such an elegance and confidence. Everything he did – he did it to the perfection. Despite that Tony had to fight with the urge to jerk away every time god´s murderous fingers got too close.  
"I need also one of my hands free."  
"Which one?"  
Tony forced his eyes to move away from his newly bandaged side and blood on the floor. How much time had already passed?  
"Right."

Finally he had everything important – his hand was free, reactor exposed enough for work and tools prepared next to him. The only problem was that he couldn´t make himself focus enough to do the job. His fingers were shaking; his hand too weak to be in the same position for a longer time and his vision became quickly hazy like he was looking at the world through the damn water.  
"Jesus fucking Christ…"  
Suddenly he felt Loki grabbing his hand to stop him before he would poke at something he should definitely not.  
"Wait. I will help you."

It was true that he was scared to death when Loki´s hand touched his left temple sending chills all over his spine, but he was even more terrified, when he imagined some of Loki´s mind-control spells being freely and without any fight applying to his own head. God knows, if the reactor in this state would save him or not.  
"Breathe, Stark. It´s going to be overwhelming."  
He wanted to ask what, but he didn´t get a chance as his mind all at once was cleared and then blown up with information and impulses from his surrounding – colors, sounds, feelings, knowledge, Howard´s hard breathing, other´s man nervousness, the way how Loki´s fingers were brushing against Tony´s hot skin… It was marvelous. It hurt.  
"Concentrate on what you want to do. Fix."

Fix. Fix. Fix. He was thinking the word all over again until it started to make sense to him. He found himself taking something from the ground, his movements steady, his sight sharp. In front of his eyes were date and numbers running, drawings and scans, everything helping him to get to the source of the problem and fix, fix, fix…

And then suddenly the cold touch was gone just as his new ability. Tony wanted to scream and fight and kick to get back to that state, but somehow he knew the reactor was safe and sound again and Loki´s pale form without any more energy to supply his brain. He knew he should say something or maybe just open his mouth wide over god´s magic, however Loki was already standing up and moving away from his view.  
"Is it… Are you ok?"  
Tony lifted his gaze to Howard kneeling beside him – hands all red from his blood.  
"Good. Now it´s nothing what couldn´t a duct tape do…"  
"…or two…" Howard ended the quote and only then Tony remembered who had thought him that.

The whole realization of him experiencing the time traveling hit him again now with the full force. He watched his father´s face with years growing hatred and happiness of seeing him alive fighting over his next words. But then he remembered something important.  
"Is mom…" alive "here?"  
Howard tried his best to collect himself and his effort was quite visible.  
"I sent her away with Jarvis and…"  
"Me?" He waited for a nod. "I swear to God, I´ve never had a crazier conversation in my whole life."

"Howard." The gunman appeared behind his father, looking from Tony to his father and back. "He needs a hospital."  
"No."  
"No."  
Both Loki and him reacted the same. "No hospital. No one else can know." Tony was addressing this mostly to his father, because he knew he would understand.  
"You know what the time traveling means. We have to try to do as little damage as possible, so we won´t change the future and us too, hell, maybe we are doing it right now…"  
"He is right, Frank."

The man – Frank, he had to get it too, because after a moment he wasn´t fighting anymore about the matter.  
"We let you get well again first and then we will figure out what to do."

Tony didn´t argue. He was dead with exhaustion.  
"Can we lift you up?"  
"Yes, but slowly, I don´t want to throw up the chicken I ate yesterday. His brother was cooking."

His words had expected effect. He saw Loki glaring back at him with rage, but at least Tony was sure that whatever was he doing to him previously, it didn´t kill him. He found his father again and for few seconds he just stared at him. Then he shook his head and without any more talking he crawled back to his feet. His legs under the knee and left hand was still in armor – he didn´t plan to get rid of all his defense against the mad god, but everything else was too much dead weight to carry around. His back plate stayed on the ground next to the rest of the suit.

He let Howard lead him and Loki to one of the rooms in the house. He didn´t want to look around much and remember anything, so it was clever to find a bed and close his eyes as soon as possible without too much thinking.  
First energy then whatever necessary.  
"If you would need anything just let me know. Please don´t move away from this room until I´ll come back. There are sensors around the place."  
He gave one last look to Tony like he couldn´t decide if he really wanted to exit the place or not. But Frank seemed to notice and with small gestures helped him retreat.

When Howard suddenly after half an hour of saving his son´s life appeared with only Frank in his workshop, he felt like everything he needed was just a cup of good coffee and chair to sit down… and few shots of something stronger than coffee.  
"I´m running DNA tests. We should know the results in few hours."  
Frank wasn´t directly looking at Howard at the moment maybe because they both already knew what will those results show them.  
"Jesus, he looked exactly like you. Only more handsome."

Howard smiled blankly.  
"Maybe we both got crazy."  
His friend wasn´t really type for talking, but he didn´t always meet people from future either.  
"Did you see…"  
"The armor?"  
"No, that… You know."  
Howard stayed quiet for a second, thinking. "Yes."  
"What was it?"  
He didn´t know if he should know the answer, but he did. "It´s a reactor. My draft. But better. And actually working."


	4. Chapter 4

Both of them were staying in the same room. The one with big place for a king bed, which was the only piece of furniture interesting for Tony in his current state. Even when it wasn´t pleasant – to occupy the same living space with a mad villain, it was the safest way how to stay… well, safe… However clever it originally sounded in Tony´s head, lying in the soft sheets and pillows, out of the shower and dressed in new clothes, he found it pretty hard to remember what was the purpose of this roommate thing. And that was of course to have some control over Loki.  
Sure, taking a rest and at the same time not completely slip away in his presence was enough hard task to do unnoticed. The tension could be cut above their heads into salad.

"Are you afraid I might slit your throat while sleeping?" Despite that Tony expected him to say something by any minute, the question still left him feel like he was expecting just that particular one. From his position it was impossible to tell what was the god doing. He could be as good as sharpening his knife.  
"Yes," he decided not to lie this time, "or squeeze a toothpaste on my face."  
He heard him made a disapproving sound.  
"Do you really think that I would do such a stupid thing as to kill you in your father´s house, when I´m together with you imprisoned in this time you brought us in?"

Well, this was finally something Tony was interested in.  
"Me?" he asked touched, "What did I do?"  
"Oh, how typical…" Loki groaned maybe with anger maybe with frustration. "You Midgardians know nothing." He seemed to be extremely bored by the idea of explaining something he considered trivial and kind of "everyone should know" to anyone and mostly to Tony Stark.  
"The spell should have taken me to place I had in my mind. But as you connected to me, the energy was thrown off balance. It should have stopped your heart instantly…"  
Tony looked at the stable reactor in the middle of his chest from high placed pillow.  
"But you don´t die so easily as I see. Instead you received a shock."

The dark passion in his words reminded Tony of himself, when he talked about his tech toys.  
\- Yes, it´s perfectly safe… No… It happened only once and I had an extinguisher… -  
He waited patiently until Loki started talking again, trying to ignore mentions of his death between the lines.  
"It had to be a few seconds of a really strong pain. You might not even remember it. But in that very moment, when you probably thought you were dying, your mind overpowered mine."  
"So…" Tony was sure he´s going to regret what he is about to say, "you´re admitting that I beat you in some strange psychological way?"  
"What I´m admitting is that you got us into this mess, Stark."  
"And I did it willingly and with a certain purpose, yeah, and from all the hot places with a lot of alcohol and women I brought us right here, because this is my favorite time and place…" It was already too late, when he realized his mistake.

He saw Loki getting to his feet and to bed.  
"Why not?" he asked. "When we are at the edge of dying we think about safe and happy memories."  
Tony leaned up on his elbows. "No offense, but I´m not going to talk about my safe or unsafe memories with a madman like you."  
Even before his last word echoed in the room, there was suddenly an ornamented dagger appearing in Loki´s hand and showed into the way of Tony´s face – still not too close to his exposed neck, but as well not too far to slip accidently from god´s fingers blade down.  
Where did he even get it?

"If I was you, I would choose my words more wisely. I said I won´t kill you because you´ll serve me better alive for now. I may of course change my mind."  
Tony sighed not letting any inappropriate emotion to show up on his face.  
"And I didn´t even started. But ok, Reindeer. I see you are a little stressed right now. Let´s make an alliance. You shove that dagger to your ass and I won´t tell anyone what a murderous psychopath you are, eh?"  
Tony made it sound good enough, so Loki wouldn´t see he used almost the same insulting words as before. That´s how the politics is made, friends…

The trickster however kept starring at him, not deadly but curious.  
"It´s not only about me, am I right? You don´t sleep because you don´t trust…"  
"My father?" Tony ended the sentence, thinking he maybe underestimated Loki´s skills to acclimatize fast enough. He sat up on the bed. Slowly. He needed a drink.

"I have a right to know if we are in a danger, Stark."  
He was weaker then he let know. From where Tony stood he could see it and he decided to be serious and a little bit of cooperative. After all he helped him to get out of that suit and added some extra stuff, which was far better than any drug Tony ever had. He didn´t need to do the last part, but he did.  
"I don´t know. I remember him as man full of greed." He stumbled as he tried to move past the bed to the small kitchen.  
"And I left half of my suit there," he mumbled looking for a bottle and glass to fill.  
"Maybe if you wouldn´t be so weak and pathetic…"  
"Yes, yes… I hear you…" Jesus, it was like an old song always repeating.

He was right in the process of getting the drink to his dry mouth, when his eyes lied on the shadow moving through the room like a ghost. His brain was still too slow to come with some decent reason why Loki was breathing to his face in the next moment and how the hell he got there so quickly.  
"I apologize, but I won´t take any risk, I will find for myself. Take a deep breath."  
"What?"  
The touch of Loki´s cold hands on both sides of his face didn´t really hurt. No. Actually it sent some relaxing shivering through his body reminding him of some good rock music. It was good before it was bad.  
Maybe because of the sudden change he felt even more betrayed and fooled. Maybe because he didn´t know this feeling of pure sensation will be drastically torn away from him in a few seconds time.  
If he knew he would prepare for the striking pain coming afterwards. He would tighten his grip around the glass in his hand so it won´t shatter against the floor. Hell, he would do anything to manage the horror coming next.

Tony felt his mind, which was the best thing of him, being invaded and violated by god´s magic. He saw him searching for information in his memories, breaking his privacy and every wall he built there, taking everything and leaving a desolation behind. It was impossible to move or do anything and he was surprised, when he realized he could at least scream, when the pain became unbearable.

His whole body was shaking, but he couldn´t fight against the spell. He had that pure look of horror written on his face, even when Loki let him go. He found his eyes and what he saw there made the anger even bigger and more devastating.  
Tony wasn´t really thinking about what he was doing. In one moment his fist suddenly hurt and his other hand was holding Loki on the floor, using an armor to get the needed strength – maybe not so needed after Loki visibly exhausted himself to the bottom.

He didn´t move. Not a single muscle. And Tony had to think why until he looked down and saw a broken glass in his bleeding palm - still not too close to Loki´s exposed neck, but as well not too far to slip accidently from Iron Man´s fingers.

OOO

"It´s him." Frank moved away from one of the Haward´s computers with undefined expression on his face. He was asked to interpret the results for his friend while that same friend was explaining his cowardice with being busy thinking things through.  
"I can´t really believe this."  
"You better do." He trusted Frank enough not to check the DNA results for himself.  
"How they even got here? Jesus, this is big, Haward. This is bigger than us. Shouldn´t we…"  
"No."  
He knew what he was trying to suggest and he also knew it wasn´t possible. "No police, no government, no other people, this have to stay here." He was sure he would act this way even when it wasn´t about his son. Now he had just a one more reason to block the whole thing at least until he´ll have more information.

"I know I can´t hold you in this house against your will or your boys. If you want to walk away I will understand, but I would like you to stay here by my side. And you don´t have to meet them again." Was he really willing to let them go just like that? He hasn´t been ever put in front of such a choice.  
"No way I won´t let you here alone. It´s true that sometimes I can´t stand you, but you´re still my best friend."  
Howard wanted to thank him from the bottom of his heart and mostly for his braveness, he…

There was a scream echoing through the house.  
Both men looked at each other alarmed and standing up in the same moment. There wasn´t enough time to express their thoughts as the series of strange noise came soon after.  
"What the hell?"  
Frank didn´t call for his men and that was maybe a mistake, but Howard realized it too late – right when he entered the room, where the two bodies were lying on the floor around shattered glass with his son gripping a one piece next to other man´s throat.  
Somewhere in his peripheral vision he saw Frank pulling out his gun. Howard hissed at him: "don´t point that at him." But who should he point it at? It was obvious who was in danger here.

"Tony," he addressed his boy calmly, dragging him out of whatever place he was in his head looking like he didn´t even know someone else was here with him till now. He breathed heavily and his eyes were a little red when he looked back at Howard, but then he let the glass fell of his hand without explaining anything.  
Still he didn´t let go of the man – Loki completely. Instead Howard watched him reaching up for his legs armor – which was probably still working – and in the next second he witnessed this very armor being moved on Loki´s feet, where it built itself up around his legs. There was nothing manual on the process, it looked like the suit had a head on its own and could do tasks with elegance and without outside help - clearly an incredible invention.

The bottom part lit up a little when it met with the ground and it seemed like it got stick to it. Tony got back on his feet and his intention was now obvious. He let the man stuck on the place in the position from which he wasn´t able to reach for armor and everyone in the room seemed to get it at the same time.  
"Try to damage it in any way and I swear I´ll let it blown up half of your body."  
The man didn´t look like he was about to put a fight, in fact he looked worse than Tony few hours ago.  
"How do you want to get back without me?"  
Tony smiled, but it looked cruel. "Don´t worry, in the worse case I´ll build a fucking time-machine."

Howard waited till he approached them and looked at Frank first. "Can you stay here with him? I need some air. You better put some music on and ignore whatever he´s saying, he´ll probably try some tricks."  
"Yeah, sure." He eyed Howard for a confirmation. He got it.  
"Come."

OOO

The two of them left the room and moved along the hall to the kitchen to the big wooden table placed in the middle. Tony sat down, while Howard stayed on the spot near the sink. The awkward silence was cut be his father´s voice before he could make up something clever to say by himself.  
"You drink coffee?"  
Tony tilted his head to the side with a smirk. "Do you really want to ask exactly this? I´m sitting in our old kitchen being as old as you with a robotic arm and crazy god locked in part of my suit."  
The thing he saw in Howard´s face wasn´t politeness. He saw there curiosity.

"It seems you know a lot of things about me." He surely didn´t expect answer for that, so Tony didn´t give him one. "Who is that man you´ve just tried to kill?"  
"First thing," Tony had to defend himself, "I wasn´t really trying to kill him. Despite what I said, it would cost me a lot of time to build a time machine with these resources, no offense. And he isn´t such an easy kill, trust me."  
Tony remembered his bleeding palm just as he remembered where the first aid kit used to be in this room.

"Let me help you."  
Howard reached for his hand, but Tony reflexively pulled back. Whether it was a reaction to his father or new surroundings, he wasn´t sure.  
"Sorry. I don´t like being touched, when I don´t expect it." Tony wasn´t nursing himself for the first time. Howard nodded understandingly when he saw his assistance wasn´t really needed.

Tony didn´t mind his other hand being in armor – he felt better that way when he kept at least this part close to him.  
"Back to your question. That man," he tried to overcome the sick feeling as he recalled the episode back with Loki, "is quite villain in my time." He thought about how much he could reveal. "He comes from Asgard and is considered a god in north mythology as you probably know. He has also special powers mostly playing with your head and illusions."  
"So you want to tell me that Asgard, Odin, Loki… they are all real in your time? Walking on Earth?" Howard frowned fitting his hands into the pocket of his jeans. It was his pose when he tried to imagine something big which shouldn´t be possible. "Is he dangerous?"

"Yes," Tony didn´t lie, "but he is weak now. It was his spell bringing us here. Well, with my little help." It was obvious that Howard tried to formulate his questions carefully understanding the danger of changing the future with mere words.  
"Did you want to come here?"  
Tony laughed. "No, of course not." He realized how harsh it sounded. "Now we have to work out the way how to get us back home. I think Loki just needs to gather his pixie dust."  
"Aren´t you enemies? Will he take you with him?"  
That was a good question. Tony knew one way how to buy his ticket. "I´ll deal with him." Then something silly and childish came up to his mind. "could I see my room?" It was much safer than talking after all.

Howard took him there without any objections. He seemed like he also needed time to think things through. For Tony it felt nostalgic to look around and find his old childhood stuff, his first inventions and projects he was working at. He got a glimpse of a fairy-tale book left on the bedside table and all he could suddenly see was a gentle hand of his mother putting him to sleep.  
"Is mom alright?" Innocent question.  
"Yes, I sent her away, but you can see her if you want."

Tony thought about the idea. "No. Not now."  
He wasn´t trusting himself to the point he wouldn´t try to save his mom if he once would see her. Don´t go. Don´t sit in that damn car. Those could be very dangerous sentences escaping his mouth.

His eyes finally wandered towards the wall full of Captain America posters. He recalled one night when all of them lied ripped to pieces by his feet. When he looked back, Tony saw his father gazing that way too.  
"Is he…" he started, but Tony didn´t let him finish, when he laughed coldly.  
"How typical. You won´t ask about me or the firm, but him." It will always be him first, right?


	5. Chapter 5

Tony didn´t really want to burst out like that. Not now. Not when he felt like he was accusing his father of something he hadn´t had the chance to do yet. The posters were still on the wall. That meant his father hadn´t crossed the line. He wasn´t that person yet. He probably was indeed engaged in his work and moved everything including his family away, but Tony could still remember some bright moments together from this time around. It was a stupid question and fortunately one he didn´t utter aloud.

You won´t ask about me or the firm, but him. His own thrown charges made him feel particularly idiotic because after all he couldn´t say a shit about his "perfect" life or the firm.

"I feel like we don´t get too well with each other in your time, eh?" Howard shut of the inner fight in Tony´s head and made him focus on the man again. It was quite surprising Tony didn´t find tracks of any other emotion than confusion and maybe regret on his face. Could it be that this version of his father was one before he´d lost all his hope in finding the war hero in the ocean? It was hard for Tony to maintain his anger when the realization struck him.  
"No, we don´t," he answered finally deciding for a simple truth, "but I´m not an easy person to deal with." Yeah, that could work.

Howard nodded suddenly glancing towards Tony´s chest, right at the reactor shaping under the T-shirt. It made Tony feel like he wanted to step back. He had to remind himself that his father wasn´t a danger to him.

"This is important, right? God, it´s in your chest…" He sounded amazed and terrified at the same time. "I´ve never imagined it could be so small."  
"So you´ve already made the first draft." Despite his intelligence Tony was only seven now, he couldn´t know about everything his father was working on.  
"Yes," he agreed clearly drifting away to his own lab. Tony laughed in his head because it looked very similar to how Pepper once described him during the meetings. "Yes, but it´s not possible. Not in my lifetime perhaps." Howard´s eyes returned to the device.

"It keeps me alive," Tony gave away the information deciding this was a safe enough topic. "I have shrapnels around my heart, it keeps them out. And it also powers the suit."  
He wasn´t able to deny he felt really proud as his father´s face litting up by the mention. Then falling into darkness again.  
"Shrapnels?"  
Tony briefly closed his eyes in irritation. No, this wasn´t a safe topic.  
"I was kidnapped in Afganistan," he explained anyway, "that happened during the ambush. I built the suit there to get out of the place where they kept me. Not this model, of course. It was far more clumsy." Seeing his father face made him reconsider uttering a joke.  
"Can I somehow prevent it by knowing what exactly happened?"  
"Like giving my young self a warning? No," Tony dismissed the idea, "It´s okey, dad. I´m okey. I survived and I recovered." Physically at least. And to the certain point. "This is the exact reason why I shouldn´t have tell you any of this. I don´t want you to live with such a burden."

That definitely wasn´t a safe topic. Nothing was.  
"I think it would be the best if I´ll draw some answers out of Loki first before we do any more talking. I don´t want to screw something up."  
And maybe give his father some time to process. He looked like he needed it. And so did Tony.

OOO

"Thank God, you´re here." The man – bodyguard – whatever, greeted him with big relief exhaling. "I was starting to lose my mind with him staring at me like that."  
Tony gazed at Loki on the ground still in the same position as he left him. His head was turned on the other side, but it probably happened as Tony walked in, not sooner.  
"You´re good here with him alone?"  
He nodded thinking about his straight plan with a god. There wasn´t much things the man could do to help him with that.  
"Come for me, if anything happens."

They remained alone in the room with Tony walking over the lying body. The suit wasn´t damaged at all, when he approached him.  
"I want to make a deal."  
The god didn´t move at slightest. "Why I should make a deal deal with you, Stark?"

Tony already thought about some good reasons before he came in here, before he quite fought with his father, but all he said at the end was: "you fucked with my head." Loki surprisingly turned to face him. "And I still can blow up your legs."  
"What is that deal then?" he asked with no emotion in his voice.  
Tony started to walk around in small circle feeling the god´s eyes following his every move.  
"You´ll take us both home safe and sound and never ever again do any more mind tricks on me for your own good."  
"And what is there for me?"  
Tony put up his best smile. "You will live long enough to gather your strength."  
"You think that is attractive deal for me?" However he seemed to be thinking about it. After a minute of silence he suddenly clapped with his hands on his tights – the only place, where he could barely reach.  
"Here is my deal. First you will free me from this. Then you´ll give me enough peaceful time to rest. And then I will find a way to take us both back in our time, so we could kill each other there, Stark. What do you think? And all I ask is you answering my questions truthfully from this very moment so there won´t be a reason to go and search for myself…" He fell silent. "And one more thing."  
"What else?"  
He looked in his face and saw a curiosity mixed with something dark and crazy. It was disturbingly familiar.  
"I want to see that device in your chest again."

Tony´s breath got stuck in his throat. "No way." There was a panic rising inside of him only with the simple thought. Demanding few days relaxing under the sun wasn´t the same thing as asking him to reveal his biggest weakness to his enemy. Not after the mentioned enemy searched his head trough and left Tony wondering what exactly did he find there.  
Loki seemed to be slightly irritated with his reply. "I helped you to fix it."  
"It´s not the same." This is personal.

There was a hazy picture of Loki´s elegant fingers moving around his reactor in Tony´s mind and Tony recalled feeling nothing but relief that he wasn´t about to die that time. However just what he said – it wouldn´t be the same.  
"Do not forget you own me."  
Well, when he had promised the god something in return for his life-saving service he thought it would be a lot of more devilish thing.  
"Won´t you ask about helping you to take over the world?" He mentally slapped himself as soon as the question was out. Why to tempt him?  
"Not this time, Stark."

Tony was looking into the perfect green eyes searching for some kind of a mischief there – anything which would explain why was the god interested in him at all, but he found nothing as Loki could wiped of every emotion so nothing could be read from his sharp cut features.  
Tony felt his heart dropping to his stomach when he finally nodded. "Ok. I have no freaking idea why you want this, but we will do it my way."  
Loki didn´t protest, his eyes just fell to his legs reminding Tony that he was still trapped to the floor.  
"I would like to eat something before I go to work, so perhaps you should start taking your armor of me."  
He stepped closer shutting himself before he would ask Jarvis to do the job. Jarvis wasn´t here. He put his hands on god´s legs looking for the mechanical locks and wondering how the hell he managed to put them on so quickly before. Tony didn´t notice at first that Loki hadn´t turn to the side but instead was gazing at him while he moved around.

"What?"  
He sounded a little surprised when he said: "you trust me" like it was something he would never consider experiencing from anyone.  
"Why not? You always keep your word on Asgard, right?" And this is a well-balanced deal for both of us.  
"Indeed."

Whether it was clever or not, Tony didn´t have much of a choice anyway. He set the armor to support his own legs again and freed the god under its power in the same time. In that point he was really completely exhausted and sooner than his body would find out, he crashed into the pillows not really carrying about the other man in this state. Ok, so he may not wake up again. He still fell asleep almost instantly. Two and a half hour later he woke up disoriented and unable to recognize where he was. He couldn´t doubt that his battered body needed a lot of more – not that he could really relax in the suit, but soon as Tony opened his eyes, he understood, why his consciousness decided it was a right time for an alarm just now.

He breathed in an inviting smell of fresh cooked food and his stomach growled back angrily in an agreement with his silent thoughts. As he slowly moved to the source, he couldn´t really decide what was more surprising to find there – whether it was the god actually serving a meal or the fact there was a one extra plate covered for him.

"Wow, I didn ´t know you could attend cooking classes along the deadly potions… Guess you have a lot of more interesting education system on Asgard." Tony picked up the covering and smiled on the chicken there.

The whole plate was designed perfectly just like he expected.  
"Not everyone only depends on the microwave, Stark." Yeah, he was totally spending too much time on Earth. "And this I didn´t cook. The maid brought it here while you slept peacefully." Like he needed to be remained he fell asleep with psychopath god in the room.

Tony maneuvered his ass on the chair without smashing anything and half expecting his attempt was at least worth a quick stare from Loki and the book he was reading. Not happening.  
"How is that you know so much about me?" He pulled the plate in front of him. "Aren´t you my secret fan by the way?" At least he earned a dark frown which sent him coughing with food for a second.  
"Is it poisoned? Because it smells good. I forgot to ask."  
"I liked you more when you couldn´t talk."  
"The thing that matters is that you actually liked me for a while," Tony skillfully played with his words rather than thinking about how he was trapped in his own invention with a possible death hanging about him. He wiped the memory away with another tasteful bite.

He had his meal almost finished, when Loki´s voice surprised him. "So, is it poisoned?"  
"Well, you tell me. You´re the one who look like poisoning people´s food. I don´t think so."  
"I wasn´t the one preparing it," he said reminding Tony of his obvious distrust of the place´s safety.

"Have some better place to go?" He didn´t receive any answer on that. Of course not. As he correctly remembered his father´s house was a fortress and surely the best place to land from the time spiral.  
"Ok," he decided to change the topic to something useful this time, "what about sharing your plans with me so I might help or anything?"

Loki wasn´t eating and he put down his book to look at Tony. "Now I´m searching for information we need. I believe I can find it in the books I own. And while you can´t read any other language than one you call English, you are of no use for me. Go and repair your suit if you feel like it." With that he picked his book back in front of his eyes pretty much ignoring any other questions Tony uttered his way or the fact that he actually spoke more than one language.

Tony didn´t really want to go and fix his suit because that meant he had to deal with his dad and with all the stuff he could not tell him. He knew himself. Something would slip out eventually. So instead he went on with the questions pacing around the room. He didn´t expect the god to answer. It was merely a ritual and a good way how to sort things in his head. So he went on and on noticing the change in Loki´s book although he had no idea where the books were coming from. Few hours may already passed when Loki closed the book he was currently studying and finally gazed Tony´s way.

"I found few facts about our current situation if you would allow me and shut up for a moment."  
Tony grinned. "Sure, no problem. Go on."  
The god first had given him a really noble eye roll before he decided to share the news. "As I originally thought there were only few possible explanations of what happened and none of it is our case so I rather focused on the rare stories mentioning time-traveling."  
"So it´s not a common thing in your circles? You´ve never done it before?" That wasn´t very encouraging.

Loki gave him an odd look. "No, Stark, believe me or not it isn´t a normal thing you do. But back to the important facts, it seems like anything we do, the universe will repair after we are gone."  
Tony frowned. "That means?"  
"That means no one will remember us and nothing we do now will matter in the end. It is a rule of how the time is copying with time-traveling and time invaders. It is the reason why no one can change what is once done. So the world with its all time structures is safe."  
"But it only works if we get back, right?" Tony asked pointing to the obvious bug. "Is there any information on that matter?"  
"I don´t know. There are plenty of more books I need to search."

The god didn´t move to pick up his book or materialized a new one. He just sat there staring at Tony emotionless. But at least not hostile.  
"Ooookey….?"  
"Not now, Stark. I need to rest."  
"Maybe you could rest even more, if you had my help." No, he definitely won´t stop trying. He let Loki check him out with cold intelligent eyes.  
"Is there any particular reason why you want to help me so much? Don´t you have things to do on your own?" He was suspicious.  
"I do. But the suit won´t be much of a problem. I think that our first common goal should be finding the way out of here, right? What do you think will happen if we are stuck here by the time the universe goes for a walk and finds out? Won´t it search for the way to get rid of us and fix the past?"

He knew his assumption was correct immediately after he let the words out.  
"Sometimes I hate when I´m fucking right. Why didn´t you tell me?"  
There was a glimpse of surprise on Loki´s side, he seemed not to be prepared for this kind of conversation. Bad for him.  
"I didn´t think this idea might cross your mind and I didn´t want to…"  
"… share the information with me I see…"  
Loki gave him a mixture of angry and frustrated look. "Panic. I didn´t want to panic."

Tony couldn´t do else than laugh a little bit hysterically. "Oh, hell, but I would so love to panic right now."  
The god put his fingers on the book´s paperback, touching it absently while he was speaking.  
"I read about some disease of unknown source which should start to weaken us to the point we die," he said, not trying to sound hopeful at all. But that was what Tony liked about him. He was always above everything, practical and a tactic searching for solutions even while world burned in flames. He was a survivor and that was a familiar position for Tony. With that he could work…  
"That sounds like my super luck just knocked on the door again. What do we do about this problem?"  
Loki glared at him like he expected a whole different reaction, but soon dropped back into the explaining without mentioning anything.  
"I believe I can prepare a potion to prolong our time here, but I need to know of what ingredients."  
"Ok, so perhaps this is really more important than my suit. Can you do that trick with sense sharpening you did before? Will it work on this foreign language in your books?"

He didn´t expect Loki to look amused by his idea, until he realized the reason. "What about no mind tricks or I will kick your knee, Stark?"  
"It was no mind tricks or I´ll kill you," he corrected, "and this doesn´t count. This is fucking emergency if you didn´t realize. And I would have control over it. I would take your word on that."  
He met with this strange look while he mentioned Loki´s word again. Tony made a mental note to investigate it further. More important fact was that Loki´s just shook his head and said no and didn´t look like he planned to give away why, Tony still asked.  
"Why not?"  
"Because I said so." Unbelievable.  
"That´s not a reason but your period talking." By now he was almost immune against his deadly stares.  
"You won´t shut up so easily, am I right?" Did he need to answer it?

Loki gazed out of the window, maybe thinking maybe planning to throw something at Tony´s so unprotected head. When he finally turned back to him, he was angry, but as far as Tony could say, it wasn´t directed at him.  
The god frowned even deeper like there was some inner fight he was waging and not winning at all.

"I won´t do it," he finally stated, "because it is addictive." He spat the last word like it had burned him on the tongue. "It is a drug, Stark. I do it once, you will seek it once more. I do it twice and you will grieve that feeling for the rest of your life."  
Damn it. He would probably do so anyway. He was hooked even now. What was the better proof to his words than Tony´s free-will invitation to his head despite that the pain from the last time still lurked in his skull?  
"What about something else then? You can speak any language, could you teach me that?"  
"No."  
What the hell is with that negative approach… "Ok, why not?"  
"Because it is a gift, not something you can simply learn."  
"It´s Christmas soon and I love gifts."  
"No."

Loki was adamant about the matter. Stark had no idea what he asked for. He didn´t understand how Loki´s magic worked, mere human. Even without giving him his word he would have never touched his mind again.  
"It is for your own good," Loki decided to continue despite he knew he was giving away too much. It seemed the only way how that man would do what he is told without doubting it for days was when he fully understood it. "There are people – simple minded people, they may be intelligent, but not nearly enough – their mind you can bend to your will. And there are other beings – rare ones like you, Stark, among all those idiotic humans. You have so many defenses and connections that your mind won´t bend but break." And I might kill you one day, but I won´t ever break you or deprive you of what makes you so bright.

Miraculously Loki´s small speech left Stark astonished for some time and he quite enjoyed it while the silence last. When he started to speak again, Loki almost groaned out loud.  
"I think this was some kind of a twisted compliment, but thank you, I think. It is a remarkable reason." He looked up and right at the god´s face, his eyes reflecting the brightness Loki was talking about. "So here I have another idea. What about you making some spell of translation?"  
Loki was mentally prepared to shut him off once more when he realized it could actually work.


	6. Chapter 6

The spell worked. Stark had been reading his books alongside Loki almost whole night and after few hours of resting they´d started again in the morning. Another day had passed in the similar manner. It left Loki at least positively surprised that the man was really able to stay more or less silent and focused on the task. It was the information about him that Loki already possessed, but until now have never personally witnessed.  
According to the files he got his hands on, Stark was the brain behind the Avenger´s operations as much as the dear Captain was the leader. It was his money, his ideas and his hands which made that little superhero group work. So few people seemed to know about the fact despite it was so obvious.

If there was still reason for Loki to attack them, he would never try to fight them all at once. No. It would be enough just to kill the man in front of him. He was the most fragile yet the most important member of their team. He could do that even now.

His eyes darted towards the human without raising any reaction in return.

The god didn´t feel so drained as it was after their arrival, he could fight but he had no place to stay. He didn´t know Earth in this time and there was still so much to learn if he ever wanted to return. And he had enemies. Enemies which were creatures old enough to know how to cross the time lines. He needed Stark. They had a deal. And he was also curious about him.

Loki didn´t doubt the fact that if he tried to kill him now it would be a great fight even when he wasn´t wearing his full armor. Although the god wasn´t sure if this end would make him happy.

He wasn´t even sure if Stark understood the still remaining danger. But he understood the words in the books. Translated or not, they were still the words, which Thor could not even read out loud without complaining it was a difficult task and not suitable for the warrior.

By now Loki could already sense when Stark came to some problematic passage and needed more explaining or examples, which he gladly gave. It was really strange how fascinated Stark was when it came to magic, although he claimed to hate it. Other times he came to some relevant information and Loki could sense this as well. His eyes sparkled with anticipation and were running more urgently just like they did now.

Loki took the book he was studying from him ignoring his angry shouting.

"It mentions some healing potions," he tried to peek into the book again. "Right here." Loki shook of his fingers.  
"I see."  
"And?"  
"It looks promising." Yes, it could work. According to the notes he also had all ingredients it required.

Loki set immediately into work, materializing all kinds of stuff he needed and moving it to the kitchen to have a larger working place. Stark seemed in the good mood, clearly proud on himself. He sat down on the edge of the table taking everything Loki had brought in his hands exploring.  
"At least do something useful." He threw him a pocket with dry herbs. "Clean in and remove the green parts."  
Stark did it without too much fussing. It looked almost like he quite enjoyed assisting him.

Loki made three potions, one for him – weaker, and two for Stark.  
"I ask for a gender equality here. Why do I have more?"  
"Because you have injuries," Loki replied expecting the question, "This one will heal them and this one is the same as mine." Minus that it was much stronger. The human didn´t need to know that. He would be able to refuse it just because Loki saw him different in the biology, which was true.

The man took both drinks, his and Loki´s and switched them on the table with a hint of a smile on his face. Sure. It was almost amusing how he thought that Loki had nothing better to do than poisoning him.  
"Skol," Stark cheered and picked up his drink.  
Loki didn´t answer, the northern languages were holding too much memories for him. Instead he picked up the drink in front of him.  
"Just a sip. Then we will exchange them back."  
"Why?"  
Here they were. It was impossible to avoid something with that man. "Yours is stronger. Midgardians differ from us."

Loki didn´t really expect him to listen and do as he was told, but he did and it made Loki feel confused. Stark had the tendency to appear predictable in one moment and then do something out of his character in the next one.

They both finished their drinks.  
"It tastes like the shit I´ve been drinking for palladium poisoning. I hoped to never experience it again."  
Ah, so he was poisoned after all. Loki glanced towards the blue light and their eyes met for a second. His own device?  
"How did you survive?"  
"I replaced palladium for a different element. My father let me hints, otherwise I would be probably…" By the time he wanted to finish the sentence, he had to by aware of how much information he let out and he didn´t end his thought. Loki smirked. Not so easy to manipulate as it seemed.

The god made all the mess disappear from the table with the move of his hand and enjoyed how Stark jumped at the sight. Then he went back to his reading spot and picked up one of the books from the pile. He gave the man a questioning look as soon as he sat down on the opposite side. Loki expected Stark to be more enthusiastic about meeting his dead parents, but so far he only avoided any confrontation.  
"What are we trying to find now?"  
"The way out," Loki answered moving some of the books in his direction. He watched him make a miserable face before he opened the first. So he was right after all. Stark had his limits with reading and staying still for longer time. Next day he remained with Loki, but the day after that he finally arranged a meeting with his father and decided to repair his suit together with him. Loki could sense him restless and on the verge of annoying him while he was studying, that is why he gladly agreed. What he didn´t see coming was that Stark decided to do it in the very same room they were both occupying.

Even after he made few very murderous complaints about the noise and concentration, Stark didn´t get out, only moved everything on the other side of the room. They could still see each other and the noise was manageable, still the bloodthirst was there lingering above god´s head.

Stark´s father – Howard didn´t talk much, the only communication he had with his son was full of terms Loki didn´t understand and therefore were nothing interesting. But then after an hour or two, he finally started to give Stark some real questions and Loki stopped paying attention to what he was reading to see how it evolved.  
"Yes, Stark Industries are still ours, but now the main focus of the company is defense and green energy. I shut down the weapon division. We don´t take any more military orders, only for Avengers team."  
Stark obviously wanted to look like he didn´t care what was his father opinion, but Loki knew better. His lips pressing into a thin line while he continued to work on his armor was a good indication.  
"It was probably the time for a change anyway." His father nodded absently. "Avengers team?"

Stark looked up and gazed at Loki possibly trying to find out if the god was listening even on this distance.  
"Yes, it is a team of some special… eh, inviduals, they protect Earth from possible threats."  
"Threats," Howard repeated, "such as him?" he pointed to Loki. The god sighed.  
"Yep. But he´s already had his maniac episode and tried to enslave us before. And he hasn´t been doing anything too evil for these last months, so he´s not on the top of the list right now."

Loki didn´t move his eyes away from his book.  
"I´m offended. Why your superhero group won´t leave me alone then?"  
He heard Stark laugh bitterly. "I knew you were listening."  
"My question, Stark," Loki demanded just for the sake of distraction.  
"We can´t leave you alone while you´re hiding on Earth. We don´t know what you´re up to at the moment, but we are no fools. You are dangerous with or without the army." Stark let his work be. Loki had his full attention and his resentment as well. Suddenly it didn´t look like Stark was so calm and above things as he seemed.  
"Fine compliment, but I´m done with your world. I have no intention to rule it anymore. You can repeat my words to your dear Captain."

He knew the reaction had to come after his wise chosen words. Stark´s father looked at his son with emotions peeking from his face, but he stayed silent.  
"Yes, he is alive," Stark admitted after few long seconds of silence. He set his hands to work again. "He´s a leader of the team."  
Game on.  
"Okey," Howard started carefully, "I´m glad he´s home again. But I see that there is something about him what makes you upset. You don´t have to tell me anything you don´t want to. We were friends, but I understand that for you it was long time ago."

It was obvious how much was the man trying to say the right things, still Stark didn´t answer, struggling with the piece of his helmet instead of returning to the conversation. Loki could imagine that Captain wasn´t always the cocky idol refusing to acknowledge anyone else´s work than his own. And it was probably hard to tell that to the man who´d admired him once.  
"You are on the team too?" The change to the topic was something which brought Stark back.  
"Yes. His brother – Thor is also with us."  
"Oh, indeed," Loki joined in before he had the chance to control his sudden emotion, "mighty Thor always on the good side."

Stark looked straight at him smirking. "And mighty Loki still having a family drama."  
The god stood up throwing the chair away from him. Next second he was in Stark´s face and barely holding back. Snapping the man´s neck was never more appealing. Loki glanced towards Howard who stood up next to his son, like he could do anything in two seconds time Loki needed to commit the crime.  
"Speaking about family, Stark. Why don´t you tell your father why you don´t want to speak about our amazing Captain?  
"That´s none of your business," he spat out, not backing down.  
"So your family drama isn´t interesting, but mine is? Why don´t you tell us why are you so angry on him? Is it because he didn´t save you when they ripped your heart out in that cave? Or because he let you take that weapon into the wormhole despite he knew you won´t likely come back? Or because your father loved him more than you?" Loki was exhaling poison with every word, but the look he noticed on Stark´s face after his last question made him swallow the next insult.

He tried to regain back his self-control, so he won´t fall into the endless circle when Stark would reply him back.  
When he indeed did, his voice was cold and emotionless. "Are you trying to provoke me into attacking you so you can kill me without a regret?"  
Loki just stared, unable to answer that. What was he trying to prove here?  
"Because if you are, just go ahead and don´t play games with me."

Loki stood there with a minimum living space in front of him while questioning Stark´s sanity. The man had to have a death wish. Still, Loki didn´t really want to hurt him. Not when his anger was slowly drifting away and all he saw was the one and only Avenger who dared to stood up to him with no weapon and defected suit on the floor between them.  
He slowly unclenched his fists.  
"I am in need of some fresh air, excuse me."  
As he made a step back, he took the whole scene in and found out they were once again surrounded with men pointing their guns – this time only at him. Stark´s father had acted fast. He gave them all a big smile bypassing them on his way out. He won´t be far and Stark knew it. He heard him admitting it to Howard.

Loki found the place in the garden, hidden from the spying eyes from the house. He sat down under the tree backplaying what has just happened.  
"What a fool."  
All in all he had no idea how much of what he said to the man applied to him and how much to Loki himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Howard dismissed Frank´s men. He was glad that his friend had to attend some business in the town and therefore was not here to yell at him. Frank would probably call him a fool and idiot, maybe worse depending on his mood. And he would be right in a way.

Howard risked a lot by hosting a norse god – he almost got used to the crazy idea – in his house because there was no possible way how to control him. He had to fully trust his son in that matter. Trust that whatever deal they had between them will keep Loki from slitting their throats. However, he still kept Frank´s men close. Did he think they were any threat for an immortal sorcerer? No. Did their presence make him feel safer? Yes. Howard had learnt during his life that not every feeling had to be rational to be helpful.

His decision to put his wife and small Tony out of the harm way on the other hand proved to be a right one. Howard could feed himself with fake illusions but he wasn´t naive. He didn´t feel okey to let his grown-up son in the same room with Loki either. But it was Tony´s choice and the safest option they had.  
Even now Howard could sense how angry he was. Loki had tried to provoke him as it seemed only for the sake of provoking and Tony had fell for it in the beginning. That was when few of important facts had slipped of their mouths. Like Steve for example.  
Howard didn´t mean to push the topic and he didn´t have to. Soon as they both settled down to their work again, Tony started to speak by himself.

He mentioned the ice and how they´d formed the team, he also spoke about the time they´d spent together. It was nice. Half an hour spent with listening to the stories cut out of superhero comic books. Still something was missing. Something personal, something what would dig deeper and help Howard understand the tension between him and his son. Where did it go wrong? And when?

"Was I a bad father?" he ended up uttering after a moment of silence, earning a sudden rise of Tony´s eyes from the piece of armor in his hands. He looked puzzled. But also willing to talk.  
"Do you really want to know?"  
He did. Nothing bad could happen except that he won´t like the answer.  
"I thought that I hated you for some time," Tony admitted and something inside Howard started to scream that he asked for it, "but I didn´t. I was just… upset and disappointed that you couldn´t put me and mom above your work."  
Yes, that looked like him.  
"After that I was angry that work suddenly changed into life-time mission of finding Steve Rogers. Man, who didn´t have to be alive. And then I felt like I disappointed you because I wasn´t the son you wanted me to be."  
Howard expected to hear some kind of a negative charge behind the lines, but there was none. This was only a confession after a long long time of denying and forgetting.  
"Only now I can see how much alike we are," Tony continued, "I can… well, understand. I love my job just as you do, I usually ruin all of my relationships because of it. Now I can see that I should have enjoyed rather few moments than none at all because of my stubbornness." He watched him tap on the arc reactor – as he called it. "You did this because you were working hard and it saved my life. So I could say we´re even."  
"If I should tell the truth," Howard tried after a small pause, taking it all in, "it´s really frustrating to hear about my past-future mistakes and not be able to do anything about them."

Tony had put it clear. As soon as they are gone, the past will repeat itself whether he liked it or not. "But you will at least know that if given a chance I would try to make things right."  
He watched Tony nodding, his face much more relaxed. "I will remember."  
"I guess we can still do something in your time? Together? Eh?" Tony froze. "Or am I still so busy with the company? I hope I´m enjoying the pension with your mother somewhere hot and sunny, but I know myself. I´m probably still talking into the business…"

Tony kept his eyes on the ground level, his heart beating in his ears like execution drums. What now? What should he say? He has to say something. Quickly.  
"Tony?"  
He remained quiet, but that seemed to be enough for an answer.  
"I´m not around anymore, am I?"  
"No," he admitted still not able to say more in the moment.  
His father took a deep breath. "How? When…" He let his hand run through black hair. "Or you know what, no, I don´t want to know." He shook his head dismissing the idea. "And your mother?" He had to know the answer before he asked. "Together?"  
Tony made himself nod again.  
"That is the reason why you don´t want to meet her?"

Finally the sound returned to Tony´s throat. "Yes. No… Yes. Damn it." He was trying to poke into something to remain calm and his attention diverged, but all he managed to accomplish was to get a weak electric shock into his arm. He threw away the stupid device and stood up. But his father didn´t move, he looked like a piece of materialized sadness and confusion. God, he´s just told him about his own death and the death of his wife. He had no right to walk away from this.  
"It was too soon. I wasn´t ready." He´d never said those words to anyone, not even Pepper. "I couldn´t understand why I was the only one who was left here alone. I almost drank myself to death. If Jarvis hadn´t interfered in time, I would go few weeks after you."

Because Starks were made of iron, right? How could he ever tell anyone that the playboy grew up from the broken boy who just couldn´t stand the sudden overwhelming burden of media, company and empty house?

"I would love to see her," he said slowly, closing his eyes, because, fuck, that was too much on him for one day. "There´s nothing I would rather do, but I don´t want to get attached only to lose her again in few days. It´s enough that you are not a prick to me and I´m getting attached to you."  
On the contrary there was a hint of a smile on his old man´s face, which made him sight but in the good way. He´s just acknowledged that the man was slowly getting under his skin.  
"Good. I won´t make you. It´s your choice. But you know her. I don´t know how long can Jarvis hold her away until she´ll storm in the house whether we like it or not."  
"Jarvis?" How stupid from him. How could he not realize he was here as well.  
"He´s gone too?" Howard asked earning Tony´s admiration for how cool he took this absurd situation in.  
"Yes."  
He watched his father stand up and stretch. That was a clear sign for a break. God knew, he needed one too.  
"Ok, enough information for now. I have the feeling those topics will haunt me at night, so I would say we can go to grab a bottle of beer and maybe discuss something less deathly… like… ehm.. sport?" They were already moving to the large living room as he was talking. "By the way do you know who will win the cup in… What?" He stopped when he saw Tony making a face. "You can´t tell me? You tell me I´ll die and this is a secret? Really?"

OOO

When Tony returned to his room, Loki was not there and he didn´t come back while he was fetching himself a dinner or after he set to work again. This time he continued without his father who had to attend some other business. It had to be around 1 am when he decided not to wait any longer for probably still angry god and he went to bed. It was the only bed in the room, but past days he´d not witnessed Loki sleeping at all, so his conscious was alright with that matter.

Tony didn´t really expect to fall asleep so early after lying down, that was unusual. That way when he started dreaming it was far more realistic for his liking.

His nightmares were no easy thing to live through.

When he´d once asked JARVIS how long lasted his nightmare according to his pulse, the answer was 1 hour and 25 minutes with pauses and returning conditions. That meant when no one woke him up, he could be trapped in his dream for a really long time and get pretty confused with his surroundings when he opened his eyes. Of course, he hadn´t mentioned that to Pepper as the reason for not breaking up with him. For last months it was JARVIS´es task to do the waking up part and it worked well for him.

But JARVIS was not here.

Whatever woke him now, he was thankful, because the last thing he wanted was to spend 1 hour and 25 minutes in his personal hell.

He had to look like a trash. Shaking, panting, covered in sweat. He knew he was awake, he knew, but where… The room was dark. Where?  
"Your father´s house. We time-traveled. It´s 3:45. Only you and me in the room."  
Tony recognized Loki´s voice. But where was Obadiah? Where was Loki? His hands stroked towards his arc reactor. It was there. Fuck, of course it was there, it glowed.  
"Where is he?" Tony muttered.  
"You´re unharmed."  
Damn it. He wasn´t making any sense. No one was here. No one except Loki sitting next to the window, his pale form unmoving in the light of the moon. He was looking at the wall or nowhere at all. What did he say to him?

He finally managed to control his breathing and locked himself in the bathroom. It was still early, but there was no way he was going to sleep again. The shower helped him collect himself. Unfortunately, he didn´t take spare clothes with him. He had to go back to the room to find something to put on.

He felt Loki´s eyes on him the entire time even in the still pitch black night. At least he was here, back in the room, not doing any villain things.

"I am not apologizing for my behavior," Tony turned after the voice finding the god sitting in the exact same way as when he left him, "but I admit that my contribution to the quarrel we had was unnecessary. I can see it affected you."  
Tony smirked. "It almost looks like you care, be careful."  
"Don´t read me wrong, Stark. Our partnership is still needed."  
"Of course," he murmured, putting on new pair of pants, his back turned to the god. "Thank you by the way… for… well whatever you did."  
It was hard to miss the broken glass on the floor when he entered the room. Suddenly he could very well remember what sound woke him up.

Loki stayed quiet. Maybe too quiet. When Tony turned to explore the situation he abruptly found him standing right in front of him. As a reaction he unconsciously made a step back.

Loki´s green shining eyes were stuck to his bare chest, his pale face and thin lips illuminated in the blue color. He looked dangerous and… captivating.  
"Do you remember our deal?" he asked, his voice resonating in the small space between them.  
"You want to… now?" Tony shivered from the idea.  
"I need to have it in my hand to understand it," he explained calmly, "you don´t have to worry, I promise not to damage it in any way."  
Tony laughed. "Only removing it from my chest will damage me."

The god´s face twisted after his confession. "You are indeed so easy to kill."  
"Wow," Tony pointed out sarcastically, "that sounded really non-threating." But Loki wasn´t really threating him. There was something else on his mind.  
"Will you die after its removal?"  
"Question for question, what do you say?" Fuck, this was probably the biggest mistake in his life – talking to his enemy about what will or won´t kill him. A game.

There was a brief hesitance on the god´s side, but Tony doubted he would turn off the challenge.  
"Yes, I will die, but not immediately. Why do you turn blue?"  
His question had only two possible aftereffects: and answer or a punch to his teeth.  
"It is because of my heritage, my true nature. This," he pointed at himself, "is only an illusion." Ok, option one. Tony counted himself lucky.  
"How long can you last without it?"  
"Few minutes, max. 10 before I pass out. Do you want to invade Earth again?"  
"No. Have anyone tried to remove it before against your will and that is the reason why you are so protective about it."  
Well, he was protective because, yeah… he couldn´t live without that damn thing.  
"Yes."  
"Who?"  
"A friend." Tony frowned. "You stole my question." Loki smiled indicating for him to go on.  
"Do you want a revenge for that last time?"  
"No."  
"Why are you on Earth then?"  
Loki didn´t reply immediately. "I have no other place to go." Fair enough. "Did you kill that friend?"  
"Yes. Isn´t there any other safe place where the whole planet isn´t hating your guts?"  
"This is the safest place of all." That was not making much sense to Tony.  
"Even with us chasing your tail? And Thor wanting to take you back on Asgard?"

Loki watched him with his intelligent green eyes. "It is safe because of your team´s presence."  
"Are you hiding from someone?" Tony remembered something – a theory long lying inside his head, something he noticed and didn´t talk about. After all he didn´t want to be one giving poor Thor any hope without evidence. He wasn´t even sure if it even mattered when Loki himself wasn´t indicating any misjudging. "You weren´t working alone, were you?" he asked really curious. "You were also controlled. I can remember your eyes. They were blue."  
"Why it is not surprising me that you notice such details?" It was kind of a compliment or at least it sounded like one.  
"They didn´t have the full control, did they?" Despite his discovery, Tony couldn´t hide a surprise.  
"No," Loki admitted, "but they were rather persuasive about what our common goal is."  
"Did they torture you?"  
"Did they torture you, Stark? In that cave."  
"Yes."  
A brief second in which Tony felt the stream of warm air escaping god´s lips. "Yes."  
"But you wanted to rule Earth."  
"I wanted to rule something."  
"So they got you on the promise of ruling?"  
"No. They used my own weapon. A simple deal. They offered me they won´t take something from me if I agree to the plan."  
"What was it?"  
"I will tell you, if you let me hold that device for few seconds."  
"I let you if you show me your other form." What the hell… Did he really willingly said yes?  
"Deals within deals. I like that you are so complicated." Tony waited.

At the first he thought he reached Loki´s limit. But then he felt a chill. The temperature in the room went few degrees down in a one single moment, the same one as Loki´s skin changed into blue marble. In the dark Tony could hardly see anything else than his face, but that enough was breathtaking.  
"Disgusted, Stark?"  
Tony shook his head, not able to stop staring. "It´s different, but not ugly. Not ugly at all." Handsome. Exotic. He only wished to see more.  
"Your turn."

Tony´s breath got stuck in his lungs when his fingers touched the reactor. This might be his last minutes alive. Steve would be so disappointed.  
He slowly turned it clockwise, until he heard a familiar sound. One painful groan escaped his lips. When the device was finally out, he outstretched his hand.  
"I offer you my heart, literary." Sarcasm, his fighting mechanism. Great.

Loki carefully took it in his cold fingers, letting his eyes slide from Tony´s face for the first time. He took his time studying the arc reactor stopping in the moment when Tony left out another painful exhale. His eyes jumped back at him. He smiled. And for a brief second Tony had the feeling that he might crash it in his hand.  
"You are extraordinary brave and stupid, Tony Stark." Was there more black around him than five minutes ago? Jesus. He almost closed his eyes, when he felt the cold hand grip his arm, steadying him. A scene very familiar from the first day of their adventure.  
"I want to give you something, an extraordinary experience so I believe. No magic."

Loki moved even closer, so close Tony could feel his breath on his face. He didn´t stop him.

His skin was really beautiful. Surprisingly Loki let him touch it. Did he ever leave someone touch him while being in this form?  
"Close your eyes. But don´t die." Tony wanted to smirk, but he was too exhausted. He did as he was told. And then in next second there were Loki´s lips on his, striking electricity to every cell in his body, setting him on fire and freezing him at the same time. Cold, tender, stealing the last air he had in his lungs.  
He was like a storm and a day on the beach. Painful and esoteric. This was god giving a kiss of life on the verge of death. Like when you tie a rope around your throat just to make the end more orgasmic. And sometimes you might hang yourself in the closet, but other times you experience a paradise.  
This was Tony holding himself at the end of his consciousness. This was god of lies keeping his promise, inserting the reactor back in its place without breaking a contact.

Tony was lying on his back on the bed. He was trying to catch his breath knowing that Loki was somewhere close, waiting. And there was a chance for him to stand up and leave, forget maybe. But at the same time that chance wasn´t really there anymore.


	8. Chapter 8

He moved from the lying position on the bed into sitting. Slowly. Not like he was faking being asleep for 10 minutes or so. Or that he got extreme bored in those 10 minutes to the point he decided not to continue with his bright plan.  
What the hell, Tony? What have you gotten yourself into? What have you done? His brain started to scream inside his head. The sheets stayed tangled around his legs and prevented him to jump out of there and run. That was good as he didn´t feel like standing up at all. His previous sudden movement had left him feel nauseous.

"You are awake." Tony´s eyes darted towards the voice. Loki was observing him from the other side of the room, occupying his usual spot near the window. He was wearing dark tunic or shirt – it was hard to tell, black pants, nothing green which was strange. And he had this hole-digging stare aimed at Tony. Just like yesterday…  
"How was I?" he asked with a notorious grin, not even sure what was the goal of his question. To see if the god can flush? To find out what exactly happened last night? Maybe both.

Loki sighed. He put away the book he was holding.  
"You mean when you fell asleep?"  
"What?" Oh. Tony briefly analyzed the state he was in. No. There was no "last night". It was only the "last night´s kiss" or whatever really happened. He was fully dressed. His reactor glowing steadily under the fabric.  
He caught a glimpse of Loki´s hands.  
Loki had had his heart in those long fingers. And he´d put it back. As he´d promised to.  
"I knew that mortals can not last long in a lot of situations, but I didn´t know it was this extreme." There was a playful spark in his eyes, something Tony hadn´t witnessed before. He pulled out another one of his cocky smiles and let it spread on his face.  
"You mean like in the situation soon before one goes into cardiac arrest?"

Loki didn´t answer, but neither he dropped his staring.  
"Why did you do that?" Tony asked. He needed to know.  
"It was a reward."  
"That´s it? So you kiss anyone who is willing to keep his promise? Because that is what it was last night. A deal. You gave me something I wanted. I gave you something you wanted. Why to reward this?"  
While he was speaking, Loki stood up and started to approach the bed. Slowly like a cat. Tony tried to recall all the blue curves he saw yesterday. How the god´s cold skin felt under his touch. His hand throbbed in the need to repeat the action. Although he could bet this would feel different.

Loki took a halt next to Tony´s feet hanging outside the bed. He was so damn tall.  
"Maybe I wanted to have this physical contact with you," he pronounced every word with a certain caution, "or maybe I find you attractive. I hardly know any person, Aesir or not who could keep up with me. Intellectually."  
"So you are saying I can´t kick your ass, but I can win a spelling bee against you, is this what mean?"  
Loki smiled and for whatever reason it made funny things to Tony´s stomach.  
"I am saying that we have a lot of in common. Maybe more as it seems."  
"But we are still enemies."  
The god bent down and stopped in front of Tony´s face making his nerves go nuts.  
"You, superheroes, always think there is only a black and white world around you," he chuckled looking not any less deathly than if he was screaming, "but that is not your case, Stark, is it? You are grey. I am grey. You see? I can bring a death and destruction upon whole planets, but I am not able to kill my brother. No matter how deserved that would be."  
"You tried to kill Thor many times." Yes, he had a death wish.  
Loki laughed hard. "If I wanted him really dead, I would find a way. No need for a direct fight at all."

Well, that was for slipping away information.

Loki had to realize that as well. He made this face like he often did when Tony provoked him into saying something he would not normally mention. Tony count each time as a small victory.

The god was about to pull away, when Tony grabbed him by his arm. Not sure why. Not sure what to do next.  
"Are you proposing we should act upon the mutual attraction and after we return, we just hop back into our old roles trying to kill each other?"  
Loki´s face mirrored something very dark and very hot in the same time. "Mutual you say?"  
Yeah, great. So it was slipping of information on both sides now.  
"I admit that you have certain qualities. You can read for example. Not everyone I have been with knew how to read." They were close. Like very close. He could feel the air escaping Loki´s mouth.  
"I am honored you do not consider me to be on the same level as Earth´s orangutans. However," Loki pressed his cheek to the side of Tony´s face so he could whisper in his ear, sending chills down his spine. "I have a lot of more qualities than that."

Tony felt this light pressure when Loki moved away while brushing his cheek again and all he wanted in that moment was to continue where they´d ended yesterday.  
"All in all, we are still enemies, as you said earlier. Therefore, I would not dare to damage your reputation between your Avenger friends."

And with that he was gone. Back to his original spot, completely ignoring of what condition he left Tony in. Unbelievable. Yes. This was totally a game for him. And Tony just showed him how stupid he was to think something different. Good. Thank God, actually. He helped him not to do another of his legendary mistakes. Even now he will have a problem to look into the eyes of one certain thunder god, not talking about the case this would went more south. Like south south.  
"Sonofabitch," he murmured quietly, hoping Loki would catch it nonetheless. He went back to his work. That was what he was good at. He needed to finish the suit today. Just for the good feeling he could kick that bastard without breaking his leg if he would like to.

Tony went into fully working mode in mere seconds and stopped himself only to have a cup of coffee every few hours. Loki stayed in the room, but Tony had no idea what he was really doing. Probably plotting… something. Whatever. Howard draw him away for a late lunch and after that he excused himself, so it was again only Tony and Iron man. And god of lies in the far corner.

By that time Tony had organized a whole new workshop in his half of the room. Howard lent him anything he asked for, although a lot of tools were only replacements in need of some innovation. He could imagine his father´s face when he will return them in all new combinations and designs.

He was only a few hours away from connecting to the system. By this point he wanted to hear JARVIS´s voice more than anything else. Working with the hammer was his less favorite part of the engineering, but he needed to flex the plates to the more suitable form as Loki´s aid let them in. Howard had even brought to him a special heating unit for melting iron he could work with. It was a tyrannosaurus rex compared to what Tony owned back in his time, but it was functional.

He put away his T-shirt after few minutes of standing in front of the big fire mouth not able to resist the heat. He couldn´t see Loki, but considered his nature form, he probably wasn´t a fan of the warm either. So Tony began to work. And everything went fine for some time until the moment when he started to think about what had happened last night and then this morning. And distracted himself. And accidently touched the hot iron with the back of his hand. And started cursing. Like really loud. Like hell did he care who listened or who will burst into the doors with guns pointed at his head.

"Great. Gorgeous. This is really impossible. Fucking awesome." He stumbled into the bathroom. Feeling lightheaded from the heat and shock, he managed to hang himself over the sink and let the stream of cold water pour down on his reddish skin.  
Groaning in semi-silent agony Tony bounced his head to his arm several times while holding the hand steady in the place. It was too soft to smash some brain back to his skull.

"What are you doing here, Stark?  
He turned his face towards the shower not lifting his head from his arm.  
Of course. Gods needed to shower. The bastard could materialize books from thin air, but he couldn´t take a shower somewhere in different realm. Or lock the door if he was doing it in the same one where Tony was. Really? Who was he kidding. Universe hated him.

The last thing he needed right now was to have Loki half naked, frowning and throwing daggers with his eyes right there next to him.

"What do you think I´m doing? Chilling. Would you be so kind and get out until I get out?" He closed his eyes. The shock was wearing of and the pain started to fully emerge. He gritted his teeth.  
"I was here first."  
Tony opened his eyes to protest with a very vulgar phrase, but he was put silent when he saw Loki inspecting his hand in the sink with surprisingly non-angry expression.  
"What did you do?"  
"Burnt myself."  
"Really?"  
In different situation he would laugh. Finally his irony was catching up on the god himself. But not now. Now was not a good time.  
"Pull it out of the water."  
"I need to cool it down."  
"I know," he replied, taking a hold of his hand without bothering to ask or announce his intentions, which was very Loki style to do.  
"Hey, hey, hey, slowly…" he warned him not sure what was the plan with the injured part of his body or whether he will like it.

The god simply let his own palm rest on the burn, his other hand fixing it in the place. It was a bit painful when Tony´s hot skin met with Loki´s ice cold, but soon after, he relaxed completely in the touch. It was so much better than water.

"I can not heal it," Loki stated flatly, "I have put a tracking spell on the person who can help us."  
"Who is it?" Well, he didn´t care for healing. He just wanted Loki not to move in any case.  
"Someone I have known a long time ago. She should be in the possession of a device we need for time travelling."  
"When will you know where she is?"  
"Hopefully tomorrow. Is this suit of yours going to work or are just playing around and causing trouble?" Tony worked out a perfect smile just to annoy him.  
"Just causing trouble, I like causing trouble."  
The pressure on his hand slightly increased. "So you are not coming."  
"I am coming," Tony burst out, hissing when Loki put away his hand and reached towards the cabinet above the sink. He pulled out exactly what he needed to bandage his hand in a perfect white ball. For whatever reason he knew where the first aid kit was or how to treat burns despite that Tony couldn´t imagine a situation when Loki would need their foolish midgardian´s antiseptic.  
"Try not to kill yourself, your friends would still blame me."  
Tony observed his hand. It was a good work.  
"You care about my friends too much, don´t you think?" No, this wasn´t a way to go. Why to recall what distracted him to the point of injury?  
"I´m going to finish the suit and get some sleep. If you leave me behind, I will use a repulsor next time I see you." Tony turned and marched back into the room, unable to stay in the same enclosed place with Loki longer than it was necessary. Maybe it had something to do with the fact they were both dressed only in their lower parts. Which was not enough.

Tony looked at the pieces of his suit scattered around the floor. Time to bring you back to life, buddy.

OOO

Loki couldn´t sleep. He was tired, but he had this desire to stay alive as well. And Stark´s house was still a hostile environment. The tracking spell was a strong one, designed to reach the person as quickly as possible. It was draining him with the same urgency. Good thing was that Stark had managed to completely repair his armor, which was now resting in his makeshift laboratory for disasters. He hadn´t injured himself or Loki any further. That was a progress. And the man kept the arm parts on his body, surely against Loki, which was another clever thing to do.

The burn on his hand probably started to heal already, because he was resting silently. Something Loki tend to think was impossible. Despite him claiming that he won´t heal the hand with magic, he´d still inserted a small spell to the skin, only to fasten the natural process. He´d done it because Stark was reckless. And because he would be clumsy without that hand. Blow up the house. With Loki inside. Or something similar.

The god realized he was watching the man unintentionally from his spot. He was tangled in the sheets like the night before with wet dark hair spread on the pillow and his face. The blue glow was the only light in the room except for the setting sun behind the window. Loki had to admit it was a nice look.

Stark was an attractive man, he even knew that himself and it was funny to watch him deal with a rejection. On the other hand, it was below Loki to compromise his enemy this way. And that left him sitting here, on the other side of the room, quietly regretting his manners. It would be far more adventurous if he had no morals at all.

Loki blinked several times. He freshed himself with a cup of the brown liquid Stark had been drinking all day, finding it energizing if not tasty. He slowly drifted away in his mind, still alert, but not fully awake.

Images started to appear in front of his eyes. The hot desert and the soft sand under his feet. The sun was shining high on the sky and he was walking. He caught a glimpse of his hands in front of him. There was blood dried on his skin…

He jumped back into his conscious self, opening his eyes. He scanned the room for threats. And after that his eyes found the bed and the man lying there.

Those were his dreams. It was hard to believe, but Stark have been haunted by nightmares even more often than Loki himself. He could sense him restless almost every night since they were here. But only last night he´d decided to wake him up. It had been impossible to ignore his endless tossing from side to side anymore.

Loki was curious, so he closed his eyes again. This could not hurt any of them. It was just innocent peeping through a key hole.

He was in the water. A beach. Sand again, but this time the sensation didn´t cause any disturbance. He had a cocktail in his hand and he was watching the gulls flying around. He walked into the water. It was warm and clean. He saw fish swimming next to his feet. And then the fog appeared. Something was wrong.

He was tossed into the waves and lost his footing. He could not stand up and the water was filling his mouth and nose, drowning him. There was someone´s hand on his head forcing him to breath in more and more. And he was holding this box in his hands. It could not touch the water. Or he will be dead. And suddenly he was up and the air was painfully making his way to his lungs. Everything inside burned. There were men shouting at him in the language he didn´t spoke. And in next second he was forced under the water again, the box almost slipping away from his numb fingers.

Loki opened his eyes with a force.

He realized three things.

He could still feel the water in his lungs. He should have not sank this deep into other man´s head. And while he was trying to get out of that place and was successful, Stark stayed and now was screaming his voice hoarse to break free from there.

Loki stood up without much thinking. He was up on the bed in two seconds shaking the man´s shoulders violently. This however caused only more dangerous situation as Stark tried to fight him even activating his armor somehow in the process. It took all of Loki´s strength to hold his hands down and not to hurt him in the same time. At that point, the men of Stark´s father got inside the room, pointing their guns on both of them, then only on him.  
"Get out of here. I have it under control," he shouted but no one was moving despite his best effort to scare them senseless.  
"I said get out." This he said with his calm and steady voice and just as he thought those words created the right effect. That man, Frank, was clearly not among them, otherwise it wouldn´t be so simple. The men retreated with unsure expression. Loki bet they would stay right in front of the doors while calling Howard or this Frank for orders what to do. It will buy him enough time.  
His attention was drawn back to Stark. He´d stopped the fighting in the meantime, but Loki wasn´t sure if it was a good sign. His hands retreated to his chest rubbing continuously against the metal surface. Loki would not see for himself what the dream had changed into. But he was willing to try a trick he´d learned from his mother instead.

He didn´t dare to enter Stark´s mind again, so he entered his own storage with good pleasant memories and let them slowly penetrate the dream. He would never find out about this. Loki didn´t have in plan to talk about why he hated to be in the presence of someone suffering from the stupid brain fantasies.  
He wanted to choose something innocent. Asgard would be ideal. But Stark would know immediately these were not his dreams. So he offered him memories of his brother, hoping they would merge together with his own. And after many many nights he finally fell asleep as well.


	9. Chapter 9

"I highly recommend not to go, sir. The suit is not fully functional yet and I am worried it might not be possible to recover all systems in given time."  
"Thanks, Jarvis, honey, I like you when you care for my wellbeing, but I don´t think I need your input right now. I need some of your invisible automatic fingers to work out and put this damn suit on me."  
"I am sorry, sir. You have to put it on manually. This particular system is one of non-working, sir."  
"Of course it is," Tony cried out, "or you´re just shitting me to prove your point."

The AI´s voice cracked like he couldn´t believe Tony could even think something like that. "I would never dare shitting you, sir."  
"Of course," Tony smirked, securing the breast plate on its post blindly relying only on his fingers and screwdriver to do the job. The whole suit was now a death weight. For whatever hidden reason he needed to put it all together first and then restart the main system. At least he was able to talk with Jarvis during the whole process, despite his HUD being a black hole as well.  
"May I suggest you ask for assistance with the back plate, sir?" The plate, last component – impossible to put in place only by himself, yes, that one. The one he should have thought about first.  
"Scan the house, if dad is present."  
"Unfortunately, he is not."  
Tony took a deep breath. "So why are you even asking? Fetch me a mirror instead."  
"I am not sure if you will be able to lift the plate in this angle, sir, with or without a mirror."

Sure.

Tony just visualized Jarvis´ imaginary body floating above him and pointing his annoyed finger on the far corner of the room. Yeah, assistance, my ass.  
"I know what you think about, Jarvis. But I assure you," he picked up his voice louder, "I would rather break both of my arms, hop on my stomach like a turtle and manage to suit up in this position than require assistance from anyone in this room."

Because the only person beside him in this room was an asshole, who´d had this need to comment on and insult his life-work every damn hour since Tony had started.  
He just needed to think it through. And maybe sit down a bit and then think it through. Or he could wait for Howard to return, but that could be very long and very uncomfortable way how to spend his day…  
"However lovely would it be to watch you break your hands," Loki appeared next to him with his quick mojo-movements causing Tony to jump, "I must object." His face was unexpectedly clear and there was no hell fire in his eyes, which was ehm, nice. He almost looked well rested, but there was no evidence the god have ever slept since they´d arrived, so Tony could not tell for sure. He himself had had a one of his better nights.

"It may happen I will need your hands in the not so far future as my locating spell just gave away the place where we need to go," Loki´s words caught him off guard and he needed to reply them again in his head. In the meantime the god grabbed the missing plate from the ground and was analyzing it closely with his eyes.  
"What should I do?" He turned to Tony and Tony had to bit his tongue because Loki really looked like he wanted nothing else but help and maybe finally return to their time. Was there anyone who was he hurrying to meet back home? No, stupid question. Was there any mischief waiting for him and therefore for them all back home?  
"Just bring it close to the neck piece, that is the anchor point, all other sides will fit if you push it up where this little empty space is over there, where… ugh… careful… hey…"  
Tony closed his eyes and counted to 10. Slowly. "Do you have any problems listening to the end of an explanation?"  
"No, if the explanation is needed. What now?"  
Tony could feel him behind his back, it was both disturbing and exciting sensation. Was there anything he could stab him with? If yes, would it be more disturbing or more exciting?  
"You have to lean into my back and push with all your might."  
For a moment there was no reply.  
"Stark, if I push with all my might, you will end up on the other side of this galaxy."  
"Don´t fancy yourself so much." Tony put his hands on the wall bracing himself for the impact. "Ok, so try to smash it in the place, but don´t smash it through my chest, everything clear?"  
"You may want to lock the door before you get us into this position."

Oh, yes. Nice position. And nice improvement of humor growth.  
"Just do it."  
He felt Loki´s hands finding their place on his back. Tony could swear he felt his touch through several layers of steel. He was ready and glad Jarvis kept his mouth shut.

He took a deep breath and heard something click in a next second.

Loki had pushed the plate into the right direction. And he´d survived. Excellent work.  
"Jarvis, restart the system for me, please."  
"I am already on it, sir. It takes 46 seconds until the system is ready."  
"Take your time."

Five seconds passed and Loki´s hands didn´t move a single inch, which wasn´t weird at all. No. He was just trying to find a right spot where to stab, right? But his fingers kept brushing the steel all the way down to Tony´s lower back and Tony had really no fucking clue how he could know that. Because he was sure as hell he should have not felt it. But he did. And in his peripheral vision he also saw Loki´s concentrated stare, like he could see right through the armor while mapping the curves with the tips.

Tony was hyper-aware that the suit looked good, he designed it after all. The shapes were made to highlight what was nice about one´s body. It was supposed to look strong and solid. The plus was it actually looked hot as well. And somehow it turned them on. Yes, both of them. Shame on you, Stark. One rejection wasn´t enough for you?

It was a real mission impossible to ignore Loki´s close presence.

Fuck. This situation was ridiculous. He had to end it. He was old enough to stop his cock talking when all he heard was "turn and make him regret that morning".

"Sir, the system is running."

Oh.

The weight disappeared from his back and he knew that Loki made a step back and maybe was already on his favorite spot like a good bookworm he was. Actually, all the weight was gone, which was nice.  
"Report all non-working modes."  
The list went on and on, but Jarvis didn´t mention anything Tony couldn´t live without. The flying was off, but most of the weapons were fully functional.  
"I told you, you were exaggerating. We are good to go."

"I am glad to hear that." Tony finally turned on his heel and found Loki standing there with unreadable expression. He just realized that the god was dressed in his traditional green-black armor minus the horns, which was a pity. Tony started to like asgardians´s accessories.

Loki didn´t comment on Tony´s eyes scanning him from head to toe, although he might have wanted to.  
"We need to go at once. When she will detect the spell, she might change her location," he explained calmly.  
"Mind to share some details? If I usually sleep during the pre-mission meetings, it doesn´t mean I don´t listen at all, you know."  
Loki sighed. It almost seemed like he held a grudge towards this person.  
"Her name is Lefer. She is a sorceress like me. We are no longer on good terms, but she isn´t aware of it in this time. I don´t know what she will ask as a price, but we can not lie to her. She is specialized in lies detection."  
"So someone you have to totally hate," Tony pointed out. His input was happily ignored. Loki pronounced each of his next words very carefully.  
"You will be quiet and let me talk and you will do as I tell you. That is my condition."  
"Okey, no problem. Have you met me?"  
"I have, Stark. That is the reason why I´m warning you."  
"Okey, I am ready to go. Jarvis, are we ready to go?"  
If there was any uncertainty in AI´s voice, it didn´t break through. "We are, sir."

Tony had let Howard know about the plan the first thing in the morning, right before he fought with him half an hour about why taking anyone with him and Loki would be a bad idea.  
"Will you be safe with him?"  
Well, if that was "safe" like safe from outside threats, he would say yes. "Safe" from Loki himself? Tony still had a strong feeling that Loki was realizing he needed him because he can´t possibly know what could appear in the future. Clap him on the shoulder for this brilliant word formulation… And after all, Loki was a person who hardly took an interest in something, but he did it with Tony, that much was obvious. Something was telling him that fact won him some points.

Howard had left the house for some important business, but Tony suspected that he´d just hated being around helpless and left out. Whatever the reason was, the old man had still made him take a military transmitter with a built-in locator with him. However, Tony´s experience was clear - if things went to hell, there was usually no time to call for backup. He hadn´t told him that.

So he threw the transmitter into the trunk of the car – because hell, yeah they were really going to use four wheeled vehicle instead of just puffing out of the thin air. And yeah, when Loki had said something like: "don´t expect me to use any magic, when I´m just holding the killer locating spell," he really was one second from laughing his ass off.

"So…" Tony started nice and smooth after few minutes of silence, when the lack of the cars on the road made the journey look so more boring. He gave his passenger a side look, truly enjoying the strange sight of the god looking as uncomfortable as possible while keeping a neutral face on. No way he could feel worse then Tony in his suit maneuvering around the car´s components.  
"Tell me how this magic of yours work."  
"Why?" Loki kept staring ahead of him, his features sharp and eyes fully focused. "You want to know how to fight me when we will arrive back in our time?"  
Tony couldn´t suppress a groan of irritation.  
"No, I want to start a conversation with you." Then he nodded for himself. "But yeah, few tips could be useful." His eyes darted towards the rearview mirror in the last second to catch the corner of Loki´s lips go up a little.  
"I told you a lot when we were reading the books."  
"But you didn´t tell me what is this thing with your energy and some spells."  
Loki gave him a look like he just said the stupidest sentence ever.  
"Don´t expect me to spill out all of my weaknesses only because of your pretty face."  
Tony returned him the quick stare and a smirk. "My pretty face?"

Ok, now Loki really rolled his eyes like he couldn´t believe what just came out of Tony´s mouth.  
"You have this habit of picking up the wrong part of sentences, Stark."  
"I have a lot of habits, actually. Like for example I have a tendency to pick apart stuff so I can understand it." Another side-look.  
Loki fell into silence, but then he slowly closed his eyes while he decided to explain: "Spells require different amount of energy. Everything comes with the price."  
"Ok," Tony pushed on, "what is the worst case scenario, when you overestimate yourself?"  
A quick dramatic pause only stressed his next words.  
"I die."  
Tony scowled without even thinking about what should be the appropriate reaction of his face muscles, while Loki had to notice, because suddenly he was gazing right at him.

"Did you ever do any spell which took you to the edge?" He mentally sighed. "You don´t have to tell me what it was."  
Loki pursed his lips into a thin line. "Yes."  
Okey. Okey…. Okey… No he had to ask. "What it was?"  
Again there was this half smile quickly running through his lips and disappearing into the stoic mask. It still warmed Tony up.  
"I saved Thor´s life," Loki surprised him with his answer, "and it almost cost me mine." His eyes wandered to the side window and to the trees they were passing.  
"The healing spells are one of the most difficult ones. I was young and after that one time mother never allowed me to study this part of the sorcery any further and later I lost the interest."  
Tony didn´t quite understand. "Wasn´t she happy you could save your brother? I mean – healing, it can be a very useful skill, mostly with you two doing a lot of fighting."  
"It is indeed. But she knew that I could not recognize the costs of those spells or worse I would choose to ignore the danger. In many cases with these kind of spells I would not save the person and I would not even save myself. She was right to do it."

So this was a kind of information Tony didn´t know what to do with. Loki just admitted that there was a time in his long existence when he´d been ready to give his life for the life of his brother and that wasn´t something Tony associated with the god easily. And maybe for the first time he tried to imagine a whole different world where those two could stand side by side and rule Asgard together. Thor´s good heart plus Loki´s great brain. Excellent combination. He could almost see how this scenario could have led Loki towards a whole different path.  
"But you healed my hand," Tony shove it into the air to hover a little before he grabbed the wheel again, "I know you did. It feels alright. Even the scar from that stupid glass is gone." Loki set his eyes on the road ahead, ignoring the fact that Tony was very clearly starring at him.  
"A petty trick."  
"You said you won´t heal it, because of the tracking spell, but you did it anyway." Yeah, absolutely no self-preservation. Welcome into the life of Tony Stark.

There was a few seconds pause which felt like a hundred years until Loki decided to spill some answer, but hey, it was a bullshit all the same, because when he said he´d underestimated himself that was a very obvious lie. Loki don´t do underestimating.  
"Well, whatever you say," Tony inwardly agreed to let it go for now, because he was thankful and in the moment, that was maybe more than being curious.

They kept on the road for another hour or so. All woods and no cars. It felt like they were heading for the end of the world. And in the meantime Tony started babbling like he always does, when he feels uncomfortable in the silence. And Loki might have not participated actively, but he was listening and sometimes when Tony said something amusing, he caught the glimpse of his rare half smiles. They appeared more frequently now and Tony learned to enjoy them, even more when he was the cause of them. If there was any alarm ringing in his head the whole time, he chose to pretend he didn´t hear it.

"Turn right, we will leave the car here," Loki spilled the order with neutral tone and it took some time until Tony reacted.  
They were here.  
He parked the car at the side of the road right in front of the path leading between the trees and into the forest. It was something he wouldn´t normally noticed while driving around, maybe not even while walking, but it wasn´t impossible to find.  
"Is it this easy to find a sorcerer in the good old times?"  
Loki just hummed something incoherent and passed by Tony clearly expecting he would follow. And he did. Only a moment later he learned that it was not so easy at all. Because obviously if you were only a human you would normally had no powers to curl your fingers in the air, do an abracadabra and end up in the same spot with same surroundings, but somehow everything was different. Tony was sure that it wasn´t the same forest they´d walked in even when he couldn´t pickpoint a single difference.

"Okey, scary as hell, but I will just play along like we are still on Earth and hope we are still on Earth and no, I don´t want to hear it if we are not." Loki was about to take a lead again when he went stiff in the middle of the step and looked back, holding his gaze for a moment.  
"You did feel the transition." It wasn´t meant to be a question.  
Tony faked a sharp inhalation.  
"Don´t tell me I´m becoming Harry Potter. I hate owls."  
"You shouldn´t have felt anything," Loki stated firmly. He frowned, but turned fast enough not to leave a place for anymore pop culture reference or actual questions.

Tony was about to start talking anyway, until he realized something utterly horrible and went for a curse instead of words.  
"Jarvis?"  
"Yes, sir?"  
"Why didn't you remind me to take a helmet with me?"  
There was a small awkward pause during which Loki abruptly stopped once more and gave him a seriously pissed look.  
"You must be joking, Stark."  
"I am sorry, sir, but I was trying to do so, you just weren´t paying attention." How lucky he was there were at least still microphones built also in other places beside the helmet, because he had this feeling Loki won´t be talking to him anymore.  
"Next time, please remind me more forcefully, Jarvis. I am used to have it attached to the rest, you know…"  
"Yes, sir."  
And Loki was maybe calling him names or maybe not, hard to tell when he spoke some different language and there was no translating spell now, but at least he waited for Tony to catch up with him. They walked for another 15 minutes or so before he felt it again. A strange unexplainable feeling – magic happening somewhere nearby. And Loki told him to close his eyes.

Tony obeyed, because hell if he knew if he wanted to see what was about to happen. When he started to blink furiously a moment later, they were still on the same spot just as before, but this time there were people hovering on the ground in front of them. A woman, in the center was lying on some kind of a wooden platform with bowls of fruit and food around. She was leaning on her elbow and watching them with sparkling eyes like she was awaiting them. A man on her right was playing with a curl of her brown hair, not paying attention to the unexpected visitors until she snapped him out of his dreamy world with her fingers. He straightened just as her, so they were both more sitting than lying down.

Tony started to focus on the soft sound coming out of her red lips and he happily realized she was speaking English, surely on his behalf. But that was disturbing, right? She knew she had to speak English around him. Or maybe she was an American citizen, wouldn´t be the strangest thing in Tony´s life. He sent a glance towards Loki´s face, but there was nothing alarming mirroring there.

"My prince, what a pleasure to meet you here," she spoke to Loki directly and waved her hand as a gesture for her man to stand up and leave. After that her eyes set on Tony.  
"Mind to introduce a guest you brought with you."  
Loki spoke his name without any emotion. Not Stark like "you are annoying as hell" or "Stark, you damn idiot" and he got this impression that this was really serious, and Loki was cautious for a good reason.  
The woman – Lefer, watched him closely and gave him a malicious smile.  
"Tell me, Anthony," she purred with low seducing voice, while making few small steps in their direction "why are you here?"  
And in that question there was maybe more then it seemed. Because he was there in the wrong time, where he did not belong and he was there, in the magic forest, where he clearly didn´t belong either, but he was also there in front of her, because he needed something.  
Loki politely cleared his throat and usurped her attention back on himself.  
"We need a device to store the magic energy."  
She pressed her lips together. "For?"  
"For time traveling."

Lefer laughed quickly like she´s just heard a great joke.  
"Even with that device you wouldn´t have enough. You know it is a forbidden territory, Loki. You are not strong enough. You lack the knowledge. You…" she suddenly stopped in the middle of the sentence, her eyes widening. "You already did it."  
He nodded.  
"How?"  
"I don´t know."  
Well, they knew at least something. They didn´t mean to time travel. Loki had explained it that first day very clearly. He´d wanted to teleport, Tony had wanted him to stay. Tony´s central system had gone crazy and took them in this mess. But now it looked like that wasn´t all what had happened.

Lefer shook her head. "It´s not possible. You have to know. Time traveling is rare, Loki. Even if you study for hundreds and hundreds of years, you don´t have to be successful. Even your mother don´t know how to use this king of magic."  
Tony looked for a hint of anger on Loki´s face. The one which appeared almost always when somebody mentioned Thor when Loki didn´t expect it. But it wasn´t there now. Surprisingly, he looked puzzled.  
"I had an extra power source, which I won´t have this time," he continued after a while and Tony realized he was talking about him, about his arc reactor, about his suit which was completely roasted when they´d landed.  
"The extra source is a tool, not ability. You said you don´t know how you did it, so how do you plan to take you both back? Because I assume you took this man with you."  
"He did," Tony finally spoke out, forgetting on the "stay quiet" deal immediately, "but that was kinda my fault too."  
"It was?" she asked obviously not fully decided if she wanted to be curious, astonished or both.  
Loki cut in before Tony could think of a smart reply.  
"It was a simple relocating spell to take me to the safety. Stark inserted his own direction. We ended up here."

Lefer gave him a disapproving look. "That is not all, but I believe you. I believe you do not understand how strong you are and what you are capable of. Because things like this don´t happen naturally. Magic doesn´t happen by accident."

Okey. So that was a one more reason why Tony should have felt worried. But instead he felt a spark of hope.  
"So is there any way how to get us back?" he asked, earning a subdued growl from the god beside him. "Okey, ask her yourself if you want, yeeez."  
And from all possible reaction the sorceress smiled warmly, amused and that was nothing Tony expected.  
"I know how. In theory. I could tell you. I could even lend you something you will store the energy in." His cat eyes found Tony´s. She moved a little forward too fast for him to move out of reach and her long fingernails clapped on the center of his armor. Right at the reactor. "I guess you do not want to use this again and risk his life." And Tony flinched so hard that he had to take a step back to prevent himself from falling down on his ass. His heart had to skip few beats because hell, no one was touching his reactor without permission with or without a fucking suit.

Loki had to be aware of the reason for his reaction, because suddenly he was right next to him and his shoulder was protectively extended to his front. It wasn´t like he was standing in front of him, but it was close enough to give a warning. The sorceress wasn´t going to touch him again.  
"But I want something in return."  
"Name it," Loki spat out and if it was hostile, they all pretended it wasn´t the result of the recent events.

Lefer moved on her original spot, thoughtful. "You won´t like it."


End file.
